


The Legend of Zelda: Astor’s Ballad

by takemetotheastral



Category: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Video Game), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Astor gets a good ol inhale of that fresh post apocalyptic air, Gen, Nobody expected Astor to actually live either, and hes only alive in the fic for like a minute in the prologue, he was contained for a century but is now about to be released, link died too fast, otherwise everyone is either a ghost or they live, tagged with major character death but its only link, those were title ideas also
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 41,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28823946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takemetotheastral/pseuds/takemetotheastral
Summary: So basically, remember what prompted the idea of link being put in the shrine of resurrection? Well he died too fast but someone else didn’t die fast enough. He unwittingly became our new candidate for “Hero of the Wild” because, unfortunately at the time, he was still alive about as much as Link was when they contained him in actual breath of the wild. This will be elaborated on in a prologue
Comments: 30
Kudos: 32





	1. Prologue: The End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are about to contain this man.

This is the absolute worst birthday that anyone could have possibly had.

If she'd had the time to, Princess Zelda would have thought that at some point today, however the whole day she was either busy or fleeing from certain doom. And as she turned toward Link after finally, FINALLY unlocking her own power to oppose the malicious beast which plagued the land, she watches him collapse. She would have been surprised that this day could get any worse, but alas she still didn't have the time for such thoughts. Her knight in the sky blue tunic was collapsing before her, so she rushed to catch him. She caught him, but fell to her knees as she did so; it's been quite an exhausting day, but she couldn't let him hit the ground, not yet.

"Link! Link, please, you have to be alright!"

Link coughed weakly as he looked up to her, his vision already blurred but now fading. "Zelda...." 

"Please, Link... please don't do this to me, you have to get up! I've just unlocked this power, we can defeat Ganon if only- if- if only--"

She looked back down at her knight, the one who she wishes now she hadn't despised before. His eyes were half closed, but glazed over nonetheless. He'd been limp when she caught him, but she knew now that he was utterly unable to be saved. She sobbed, hugging him closely. She finally had some time in peace, but it could only be spent mourning for her beloved knight. She didn't hear the footsteps running across Ash Swamp, nor did she notice Link's sword trying to get her attention for a few moments. In fact, she may have been ignoring the sounds to mourn. But before it could be decided whether she'd be ignoring anything or not, she heard a voice from within the Master Sword. Though it sounded cold and emotionless, she had a feeling it was trying to be hopeful.

"Princess, despite the major loss we've experienced, I believe there is a chance we can still defeat the Calamity. It's a long shot, even I cannot calculate the percentage at this time, however for this possibility to even be feasible, I will need you to do exactly as I instruct."

Zelda sniffled, and wiped some of the tears from her eyes. "What... can still be done? After- after this...?"

"The Hylian who we've encountered a couple times before still lives. You have inadvertently purged any malice from his body with your awakening, as well. He has the power to oppose the calamity, if he would utilize it to do so."

Zelda looked at the sword, glowing a pale blue with its echoing, chime-like sounds. "Are you talking about _Astor?!_ " She gestures at the man laying face down several meters away. "He has tried to kill us at every turn! What- Did I do that to him?!" She rotates her outstretched hand nearly in disbelief at the idea that she would have taken him out with her mere awakening, and looks back at the sword with a confused and disgusted expression. She is in such shock and disbelief from everything that she can't even ask what the hell the voice within the Master Sword, of all things, could be thinking with this.

"Yes, I do mean him, and not entirely. That is beside the point; He would be our final hope for this, with the best chances for success as Link's successor. Yes, even with everyone else considered, as much as I'd hate to say it." Zelda sighed then, as the ones making the footsteps finally arrive. Zelda looks up at her three friends. 

"Impa... Purah, Robbie... I am glad to see you all alive." Zelda managed a small smile. "But I am afraid I must send you off immediately. Link... Link didn't... make it. But the Master Sword, it spoke to me of a new plan." She pointed across the field at Astor, who looks more dead than Link. "The sword thinks if we put _him_ into the shrine of resurrection, he is our best hope for defeating Calamity Ganon, and..." She sighs, sounding more exasperated than any 17 year old should ever be. "Well, who would I be to question it? Please, take him there as soon as is possible, before he dies as well...."

"But, Princess," Impa looked between Zelda, Link and the enemy Hylian, "He's tried to kill us all!" Zelda looked up at her friend once more. "That was addressed with the sword, that evidently doesn't matter." Purah stepped a bit closer to Zelda and crouched down, frowning sadly at Link before looking back to Zelda. "What do we do, um, about his... orb?"

The three Sheikah and Zelda all look at the sword as it glows more, making that same noise. Zelda then looks up at her friends, stating calmly, "The malice was purged from it, but it could still be activated. It is... recommended that you dismantle it, perhaps in a way that allows it to remain functional when pieced back together." She looks back to Astor, who seriously doesn't even look like he MIGHT be breathing. "Should he awaken later on and wish to oppose Ganon, it would likely be his best option for a weapon unless he shows proficiency with, well, anything else. But if he decides to follow the same path once more, he will be virtually powerless without it." Robbie nods, already planning how to dismantle it, but snaps back to the current event when Zelda speaks up again. Purah and Impa are listening attentively. "Now, you must take him there! His time is definitely running out at some rate, and we need some hope of destroying Ganon! Please, hurry there...."

"Will you be alright alone, Princess?" Impa looks at her worriedly, as Purah and Robbie run to Astor. "Or, shall I stay with you?"

"Impa... I can hold my own now. I've unlocked my power, and I plan to head back to the castle. I don't want to endanger you by bringing you there, I don't doubt your abilities in the slightest though. So you will be tasked with escorting Robbie and Purah, alright?" Impa nods and begins to walk toward them, but Zelda stops her. "When your mission is done... Would... would you please bury Link, and make a memorial for him?" She tears up again as she says this, still very heartbroken. "Wherever it's safe will work, but... it's the least he deserves...."

"Of course, Princess. Be safe, as much as you can, okay?"

"I will. You too, Impa..." Zelda sighs as she watches her friend join the two scientists, one of whom carries the orb and the other carrying Astor like a sack of potatoes. Impa goes to help Robbie with Astor, concerned that that can't be very safe for the man, and soon they're all headed to the Great Plateau. Zelda finishes mourning when Link becomes cold, and she lays him down and folds his hands over his chest as she's instructed to return the Master Sword to Korok Forest on her way back to the castle.

Later, Purah and Robbie are placing Astor into the stasis chamber of the Shrine of Resurrection as Impa watches the entrance. Robbie and Purah are talking about what to do next.

"So for his weird orb thing I'm thinking like, what if we split it into three pieces and each of us holds onto one? And we like, hide them somewhere only we know or something so he can't get 'em?" Robbie says, looking over their notes on the shrine to make sure they're activating it correctly. "Sounds like a good idea! After we get all the stuff moved out to our labs we can determine where they'll go- oh, I hope there's enough space at your place Robbie! Isn't that old lighthouse like, tiny?" Robbie smiles a bit as he closes the notebook. "That's the thing- Nobody knows about the secret basement! Oh, and you gotta press that circle to seal it properly--" He points to one of a constellation-like array of various circles, and Purah presses it. It lowers the top of the stasis chamber, and she presses another one to activate the part that'll hopefully keep Astor alive and heal him well he's in there. "Thanks, champ. Hope it can sense whoever's inside still, wouldn't be nice to accidentally make a prophet pancake outta him." She and Robbie laugh a bit at the joke, enjoying even the briefest respite from the whole situation of today. Not too long after, they're all standing outside the shrine and watching the doors close. Purah's holding the purple cloak Astor has worn, along with the malice eye circlet and the orb.

"So what do we do with this dingy-ass oversized rag and the circlet? I don't think he'd need or want these if he's gonna save Hyrule from Ganon." Impa inspects the garments for a moment, before answering. "Well personally I think we should destroy those, at least the circlet. What if Ganon can actually see out of it or something?" Purah instinctively flings it into some nearby shrubbery at that, to which Impa looks at her quizzically as Robbie goes to retrieve it. "Sorry, reflex-- we could probably actually cover it with the cloak for the time being." Robbie speaks up as he returns, tucking the circlet into the cloak carefully. "We should burn these both and then smash the jewel with like, a rock probably. If it can't be repurposed for our technology at least, and I'd guess it _could,_ but we don't want Ganon to see our experiments with it." Impa nods as Purah readjusts her grip on the items. "Sounds like a plan, we should probably get going then." "Definitely," Impa nods once more, "I've got a memorial to make for Link too."

And so they continue on their paths, and Zelda continues on hers, and Astor starts to heal. Soon he'll be experiencing weird, sometimes lucid dreams where people describe lighthouses with secret basements and hidden orbs and maybe even pancakes occasionally. If he remembers the dreams, he certainly won't remember why those come up so often.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes I referenced "There Must Be 50 Ways to Kill A Prophet". I didnt plan any of this writing and accidentally gave myself the opportunity so of course I'd take it


	2. Chapter 1: he awakens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oh my god hes alive! HE LIVES!!! go astor go do what link does in the game. youre even afflicted with amnesia youll fit right in there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didnt know what else to make for the summary im sorry

_It's cold._

"Open your eyes..."

_It's too bright- or maybe not? The golden light's fading...._

"Open your eyes... Wake up, Astor."

 _Why is it cold? Where_ is _this?_ Astor sat up and looked around, rubbing his eyes before assessing his surroundings further. He slowly gets up, realizing that not only is his hair annoyingly long and getting in his eyes but also he's been left only in some underwear. As he starts to wonder what the hell is going on, he hears the voice once more.

"Astor. Do you see the sheikah slate on the pedestal before you?"

He looks up at that, noticing the rectangular object. _Guess that's the slate, hm?_ He steps outside the rather uncomfortable bed now, pulling his foot back for a moment when he realizes the floor is colder than the air, but then steps out entirely to grab the slate. He hopes desperately that there are some clothes nearby, or at least socks. He picks up the slate when he gets close enough, and that causes the door in front of him to retract upwards into the wall, and he can now see that there are a few chests and crates ahead. Immediately curious, he goes and opens the chests, finding some dingy-ass clothes. _Who would wear anything like these?_ Well, him, now until he finds anything decent. At least his feet don't have to be frozen by the cold stone floors anymore. And there's even a little clip he can attach to hold the sheikah slate! _How convenient,_ he thinks, fiddling with it until he's confident the sheikah slate won't fall off his hip. He approaches the next pedestal.

"Place the sheikah slate on the pedestal. That shall show you the way."

Confused, but with nothing better to do, he complies. This door retracts too, and as he moves to see what other cold, dark room awaits him, he's blinded by the utter brightness outside. He closes his eyes and rubs them again, and squints as he waits for them to adjust to the light increase.

"You are the light. The light of our hope, which must shine on Hyrule once again. Now, go. There is but one more thing I will guide you to do, and after that, you have a challenging road ahead of you. Good Luck."

 _Challenging... How reassuring, thanks._ He approaches the exit, climbing with a bit of struggling to reach it, but nonetheless he makes it outside. He shields his sensitive eyes from the sun as he walks toward the edge of the cliff, looking out over everything. The sight captivates him for a moment or two, _it's..._ _beautiful..._ he thinks, until he turns toward the right and spots a strange hooded figure who seems to be watching him. The figure looks taller than him, but they're being awfully _rude_ and unsettling, watching him and all. How long had they been there, anyway? After watching them and wondering that longer than he had been acknowledged for, he decides to make his way down the hill and interact with them. Confrontation or not, he'll decide when he gets there. On the way he tries to stop shielding his eyes- _nope, still too bright-_ so he will be doing so for the foreseeable future. When he gets closer he can see the figure appears to be a large old man, camping by the fire. He gets a bit closer before speaking for the first time in a century, though he doesn't know it's been that long. "Uh... Hello?" The figure looked up at him. "Ah, hello there. What brings you to this plateau?" This question baffled Astor for a moment. _Was he not watching me exit the cave? Is there another way up to it? Wait... how_ did _I get up here?_ "I..." "It's alright, you don't have to answer. We all have some reason or another for what we do." The figure chuckles a little, and Astor continues when he stops. "I don't... actually know. What I'm doing up here, I mean...." He looks up at the old man to ask if he might know, but thinks it's a ridiculous notion. _Why would this old man know what I'm doing up here? Even_ I _don't know!_ "You don't, huh? No memory of how you got here, or do you just not know why you may have wandered up here?" "If I wandered up here somehow I've no idea why, but I don't remember how I got up here... just woke up in that weird cave...." He looks down thoughtfully, and notices the baked apple. Then he notices he's hungry. "Oh, do you want that? You're free to have it, I suspect one might be hungry after waking up in a strange place after who knows how long. Why don't you sit down, too? I'm sure there must be a lot on your mind."

Astor sits down across from the old man, and glances back up at him almost warily before taking the baked apple. He bites into it, and before he realizes it he's eaten nearly the entire apple. It's like he hasn't eaten for a century, or something. Wonder why that might be. He looks down at the apple core, then back up at the old man, who wasn't even trying to hide his surprise. He thought this strange little man was scrawny but he didn't expect him to be literally starving. "I'm... sorry, might you be able to tell me where I could find more food?" "Luckily for us both, there are dozens of apple trees in the area. One right behind you too, actually!" Astor turns to look at the tree, and looks up to see the apples. "And nobody owns them either, so they're free for the taking!" Astor stands up and picks some of the lower apples, as the old man continues, "And you seemed to enjoy that baked apple so I'll gladly share the recipe with you- Just set them by the fire and wait a bit! You can tell when they're ready, they'll be a bit darker will smell quite sweet." Astor sets them by the fire, and looks up at the old man again. "Um, thank you... You've been so hospitable already, and I'm grateful for that." "Why, of course! There's always more to gain from being kind than not." Astor nods contemplatively, watching the apples. The king hopes he's doing a good job helping with the whole plan, even though he'd only partially overheard the Sheikah's discussion from a century ago he knew that this man had been evil. He knew too that no one wants him to be evil again, and with his amnesia it was the perfect opportunity to shape him into a respectable individual who _wouldn't_ side with Ganon. He watches as Astor reaches for one of the apples before looking up, as though he hears something.

"Astor. There should be a point marked on the map of the sheikah slate. Please head for that point."

The old man heard this too, but gives no indication. Instead he decides to watch as Astor pulls out the slate and pokes the screen a few times before finding the map. _Kind of a bad map..._ thinks Astor, as he sees a dark blue grid with a yellow arrowhead and a yellow circle with a slightly bigger circle around it. "Are you considering traveling further on the plateau?" Astor looks up at the old man quickly, he almost forgot he wasn't alone. That old man is too quiet, but at least he's nice. "I think I have to, at least soon." "Be careful, there are monsters ahead." "Monsters???" The old man looked like he almost felt bad that this guy didn't even remember the monsters. "Yes, I'm afraid they've made their homes up here. But fear not, they can be dispatched quickly enough, and even faster if you hit them before they know you're there." The former prophet of doom tilts his head. It's like this guy's never contemplated murder in his life, he's more of a blank slate than his map. "Yes, I'm afraid too that the only way to actually deal with them if they spot you is running away or killing them, and I for one know running isn't always the best option." Astor nods. "I see... makes sense." "Would you like to learn how to fight? I know it can be scary the first few times, and even if you've slain a thousand bokoblins before, well, it may as well be a first time if you remember nothing of it." "After I finish these, please?" As Astor gestures to the apples the disguised king nods, mildly surprised that such an evil man has such basic manners. "Sure thing, they look just about done." Astor snatches them away from the fire before they start to burn, avoiding burning himself, and waits for them to cool a bit before eating them.

"While we wait, I'll give you a bit of briefing. There are _lots_ of things you can use as weapons. Sticks, rocks, torches, axes, even weapons fashioned by the monsters themselves can be used against them. and you can find lots of sticks up on that hill you came down from, along with mushrooms. Fun fact, nearly every mushroom you see in Hyrule can be eaten _raw,_ but the others need to be cooked first." Astor listens intently as his new friend continues, starting to eat one of his apples. "They too can be roasted like the apples, as well as most other plants you can eat. Others, though, will just burn. This applies to sticks too, they can be used as torches in a pinch but they certainly burn up much faster than an actual torch." He reaches over and grabs his own torch. "Torches can be used as weapons, as I've said, but their forte is fire. Using them with that in mind, they can last longer than some might expect."

Soon Astor finishes his breakfast and heads back up the hill. The shirt thankfully came with a smallish bag, and both garments came with items to hold weapons with. Astor found a lot of sticks, just like three but it seemed like a lot at the time, and more mushrooms than that. He scavenged all of these items, and found some acorns that he didn't know what to do with but felt like they'd come in handy. As he walked back down the hill, he realized that despite the sun being higher he now didn't need to shield his eyes. That was another upside. He returned to the fire and set several large mushrooms by it, and pulled out the acorns. "Can I eat these?" The old man chuckled a bit at the question, and Astor thought it might be a stupid question before he spoke. "You can, but they're generally more trouble than it's worth. Unless you prefer to eat them with the shell on, you have to crack them open with a rock or set them by a fire. The latter's more favorable, but the former can work if you're starving and surrounded by acorns, even if its easy to accidentally shatter the edible bit." Astor raises his eyebrows a bit at that, then sets one by the fire to test it out and sets the rest in the bag. Probably better as monster bait, then.

The mushrooms are finished roasting not too long after, and Astor takes about half of the mushrooms, moves the rest away so they don't burn, and takes the acorn. It was now the old man's turn to tilt his head in confusion. "Aren't you going to take the rest of those?" "Oh, sorry- they're for you, for the apple and such." "Really? Why, thank you." The old man accepts his gifts with a smile, taking this as a good sign. Astor sticks most of the mushrooms in his bag, eating a smaller one and then trying to peel the acorn. The shell had cracked and chipped away rather easily now, but Astor had to use a smaller, pointy stick to actually get the acorn out. He ate it, and after a moment decided that they are better for monster bait or whatever he might use them for. The old man stashed the mushrooms in his own bag as Astor worked at the acorn, and he stood up when it looked like the younger man was ready to go. Astor stood up too, and was handed the torch. "That's a free weapon for you. Let's go slay some bokoblins." Astor nods, and follows as the old man walks a bit further down the hill, picks up an axe, and holds it over his shoulder as he continues onward. When they get about 20 feet further, a bokoblin runs out from behind a large rock outcrop, running at the old man. Astor holds his torch in a defensive position, certain he wasn't a bokoblin slayer as none of this felt familiar or anything, and watches as the old man dispatches the bokoblin with a few hits. The bokoblin collapses, soon disappearing in a puff of black and purple smoke, leaving only its stick and some teeth behind. The old man turns to Astor, setting the head of his axe back on his shoulder. "See? it's that easy."

They continue onward, Astor participating a little more with each bokoblin encountered. When it's calm, and they reach a smallish field, Astor looks around at the ruins surrounding him. He wonders if he's known this place, or if he ever lived here. If maybe it was his home, how long was he in the cave, for it to be so ruined? He snaps out of it when an arrow flies past his head. He sees some bokoblins on the hill aiming at him and the old man, and judges that they don't seem to have any close-range weapons, so he decides to run at them, torch drawn. He can see they look surprised from this, and after several hits they too disappear in puffs of smoke. The old man walks over as Astor starts looting their remains, stealing both quivers and bows too. "Nice job! Impressive, taking out two of them at once!" Astor smiles at that. "Really? Great! And with these..." He inspects one of the bows, and nocks an arrow. "... looks like we can kill them more easily." The old man goes a bit closer to him. "Certainly, but you've nocked it on the wrong side. Let me show you how to do this." He holds out his hand, and Astor hands him the bow, arrow still attached. The old man takes the arrow off and flips it around; the index fletching was facing the wrong way. "You want to make sure the one that's perpendicular to the bow string is facing away from it, or it'll hit the bow when you let it fly." Astor nods, accepting the bow when it's handed back to him.

He realizes he has no idea how one of these works, and his new friend notices, as he stares at the bow for a few moments. "Need help with that?" "... yes. Could you show me how to use this?" "Of course, hand me the other bow." and so Astor got an impromptu archery lesson, with the bokoblin at the tower participating as the target. The old man nocks an arrow and pulls the string back. Astor mimics him, and after his pose is assessed as at least adequate he's instructed on how to aim. That poor bokoblin doesn't even know what's coming, especially not when he's hit straight on the nose. Panicking, the bokoblin starts to get back up, only to be shot and thus killed when he looks at Astor. Astor decides he prefers ranged weapons, and checks the sheikah slate again. That little structure it seemed to be guarding is definitely the map circle, if the yellow arrowhead's supposed to be his location. He steps onto the platform, the old man following, and sees another pedestal. He puts the sheikah slate on it, face up, and it beeps before the message "Tower activated. Please watch for falling rocks" appears. Before he can even finish saying "What?" the apparent tower begins shaking, soon bursting upwards. Astor is yelling, panicking as the old man just calmly holds onto one of the railings so he doesn't fall over. He watches as they both rise up, and several other towers do the same across the kingdom. Astor missed this as he is on the floor of the tower, and doesn't get up until it stops moving. The sheikah slate now displays the message "Please place back on the guidance stone." so he puts it back on the pedestal, watching as some blue liquid drips onto it and opens the map, revealing the Great Plateau.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> astor and his new friend jump various bokoblins, more at 6  
> king rhoam accidentally adopts astor as a son send post


	3. Chapter 2: Great Plateau and Magnesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well he just got the map. Let's see where he goes from here

Astor looked at the newly revealed map, intrigued by the detail. He is about to zoom in on it when he hears that voice again.

"Astor... Look up. Do you see the castle in the distance?"

He looks up to see a swirling, dark cloud begin to envelop it. Something about the sight feels familiar, but that is overshadowed by fear as he spots a shape moving within it. He watches it circle the castle and roar, the cloud swelling and gaining shifting, bright pink highlights mixed among black. He watches the red and black phantom in horror as the voice who's been guiding him continues to speak.

"The Beast.... When the Beast regains its true power, this world will face its end... I must ask you to hurry. This is the task with which you are Hyrule's final hope, Astor... And I am sorry, I don't know how much time is left. As you've been asleep in the Shrine of Resurrection, I have been confining this monster to Hyrule castle, and it's already been one hundred years..."

"ONE HUNDRED _YEARS?!_ " Astor at least now knows how long he's been asleep for. Wonder if that's why it felt like he hasn't eaten for a century.

"Yes, it has been quite a long while... But you are finally awake, and thus we have hope to save Hyrule once more. I must focus my powers to contain this beast now, so I will not likely be able to speak with you again until you are fulfilling your new purpose. Good luck, Astor...."

He watches the golden light fade from the castle, and questions what she meant by 'new purpose' as the old man approaches him. "Are you alright there, Astor?" Astor, having enough on his mind as is, doesn't think to wonder if he ever actually introduced himself to the old man. "Well... As much as I can be, I guess...." He turns to look at the old man. "And, er, I'm sorry, did you tell me your name? I must've forgotten...." The old man chuckles a little at this, lightheartedly. He does this to hide the fact that he's relieved that Astor didn't question his little slip up too much. "It's alright, you seem to have a lot on your mind. It's Rhoam, should you need anymore reminding it is alright to ask." Astor smiles sheepishly, glad that Rhoam was not offended or anything by this. "Thank you, Rhoam." He walks to the edge of the tower now, looking over the plateau for a moment before looking down. "So... How are we going to get back down...?"

"I know how _I'll_ get down, but it looks like you'll have to take the long way. Good luck there, friend!" Astor turns to look at Rhoam, confused and hit with a bit of shock as he watches the old man jump off, pulling out a little object with fabric stretched over it, and slowly floats down. He's very relieved that he had that little glider thingy, but now a bit more than a tad jealous as he continues to watch Rhoam's descent. He turns back toward the tower and notices the one opening that isn't blocked by stone, and peeks over the edge before carefully starting to climb down. It takes him a good few minutes, stopping at each platform to breathe, as he wasn't made for climbing and the portions where he was suspended over drops that could kill him were quite stressful. When he finally reaches the ground he stops once more to breathe a sigh of relief, and does a little jog to reach Rhoam, standing on a rock a bit away from the tower.

"I didn't know you had that, scared me half to death when you just jumped off!" Rhoam chuckles again at that. "Sorry! Sure comes in handy though, huh? You'd need this paraglider to get off the plateau at least, since that pond over there was once the only way up or down." He gestures toward it, hand outstretched as Astor wonders how it became a pond. Astor then looks at Rhoam, who knows what he's about to ask about. "So... might I be able to borrow that paraglider? Apparently I need to get off the plateau." "Why, of course! It's yours, my friend, so long as you have enough rupees!" Astor instinctively pats his pockets and looks through his back, which still only has food and acorns inside, before looking back up. "I'm poor. Anything else you'd take for that?" "Well, see that little structure?" He now points to that weird structure across from the pond, which Astor can tell is made from the same kind of strange stone as the tower. "That shrine lit up when you activated that tower. Legends say there are treasures within, and there are four of those shrines on this plateau. If you bring me the treasures of each shrine, I'll give you the paraglider, even without enough rupees."

"That's fair, alright." Astor starts walking to the shrine, looking at the unnatural pond as he passes by. He can faintly see stairs in the depths, and sees a lot of things made of that weird stone in and around it. He wonders what those could be as he continues walking, reaching the shrine soon. As he passes the smaller pond next to the shrine he sees the sunlight reflect off something, and turns to see a treasure chest in the water. Still filled with curiosity at whatever's in a treasure chest, as that's how he acquired his current outfit, he decides he wants to get it. He discards his extra garments, starting with his bag of food and ending with his boots, and walks to the edge of the pond. He tests the temperature, thinking it's not too cold as he watches the chest shimmer, and steps into the water. He sinks immediately, and resurfaces a moment later, yelling. The water feels much colder now that he's in it. He stops yelling and clings to the bricks on the edge, shivering for a bit before inhaling and diving back in. If only he had an easier way to get this chest, that would be cool. He starts fiddling with the simple lock on the chest underwater, but before he could get it to a point to actually open it he has to resurface. He swims back up, hair plastered all over his head, and he moves it off his face before sighing in an annoyed fashion. He stands on the chest, almost on his tiptoes and treads water to breathe for a moment, hoping that whatever's inside is worth this. He dives back down and fiddles with the lock a bit more before he gets it open and it immediately releases a ton of air, opening it all the way. he looks inside and has to stop himself from expressing his disappointment because he's still underwater. He reaches in and grabs the little stone, and swims back to where he'd first entered the pond.

Resurfacing and at the edge, he drops the little rock on the bricks to his right and starts to climb out. He sits on the edge and pushes his hair behind his ears again before he picks up the small chunk of amber and looks at it with something like disgust and/or confusion. " _Seriously?_ Who gets an entire, metal chest just for THIS?" He turns it over a couple times, holding it up. It's awfully light, if plastic was a thing in Hyrule he'd suspect that it was some chunk of that, but it looks a bit pretty so he puts it in his bag anyway and hopes to sell it later. Before redonning any of his discarded garments, he squeezes as much water as he can out of his hair, shirt and pants. He regrets wearing any clothes into the water, as they're still damp when he puts them back on, but goes to the shrine when he's got everything back on. Seeing a familiar pedestal, he puts the sheikah slate on it, and the shrine opens up. He sees a tiny blue shrine icon appear on the slate's map, and notices the tower's icon as well. He raises his eyebrows a little, thinking it's interesting, but puts the slate back on his hip as he steps onto the little circular thing inside. As he starts to wonder where the treasure could be in this tiny little hut, it starts taking him down.

After a few moments of being stuck in a dark hole, he sees bluish light appear and start rising from the bottom of the walls. Soon he realizes he's in an area not too different from where he woke up- remembering it apparently contained him for a hundred years, hoping this won't do the same to him- and it has the same chilly air. He sees another familiar pedestal, and thinking it's a bit funny that he's seen so many already, he places the slate on it. He wonders what might happen next, watching the blue light drip onto the, slate and hoping this won't do the same as the tower. Instead, it opens a new screen on the sheikah slate, filling in one of six squares with a little red horseshoe. The text "Magnesis Rune Acquired" appears on the screen, and prompts him to press a button to activate it.

As he does, it reveals that there's a camera on the slate, and looking at it he doesn't see much different aside from some red lines on the ground. He looks at it as he moves the slate around, seeing the lines on the walls, the floor- and then he sees those metal plates on the floor glowing pink. He looks at them outside the camera and stares for a moment, realizing he should have come in here before trying to get that chest. He got all wet and could have drowned for nothing, if this will affect that chest. Hoping it wouldn't do that, he moves the slate and the little crosshairs on the screen turn one of the pink plates to yellow. He presses the "activate" button again, and a blue horseshoe hologram appears on the slate, facing with the ends away from him and blue tendrils attached to the plate. The camera's turned off, and he moves the slate to find that it moves the large metal plate with ease. Revealing a ladder, he decides the rune has fulfilled its purpose and looks at the screen to find how to turn it off. Activating the rune made more buttons appear, the "activate" one moving a bit higher on the right of the screen to make room for a "deactivate" button below it, and two identical buttons with up- and down-pointing arrows on the respective ones. Curious, he pushes the higher one, pulling his hand away in surprise when the plate moves away from him. He tilts his head a bit, watching it move closer when he pushes the lower button, and then deactivates the rune. He jumps when the plate clatters to the ground loudly, making a mental note to put things on the ground instead of dropping them.

He climbs down the ladder, and walks along the path and up the stairs to find a three by four array of giant cubes, the second in the middle row being metal. He activates Magnesis again, pulling the block toward him and using it to push the others out of the way. He walks forward, smiling a little at how effortlessly everything can be done with Magnesis like this. Upon walking around a cube, though, he sees a short little mechanical thing apparently looking at him with a blue orb set into what might be a head. He looks back at it curiously as it begins to glow orange, revealing more intricate patterns on its round little body. It starts to appear to absorb light into its eye, and Astor moves back behind the cube at the last second when he realizes its hostile, the tiny laser hitting the wall behind where he'd been standing. Then he has an innovative thought, bringing the cube closer to himself as the robot scuttles closer.

Something about the robot displeased him, but he didn't know it was a feeling of displeasure from a hundred years ago as he smashes the robot with the cube. He's almost surprised that worked, watching the robot malfunction and explode, as the cube seems as light as air. He decides to loot the few remaining pieces of the robot, a couple gears and a spring, and continues onward with his cube. Manipulating the metal plate to act as a bridge, it takes a bit of extra time to do as he doesn't want the cube to be left anywhere out of range. He opens the doors to find that this is apparently the end of the shrine, seeing a figure within a larger stone device. He looks around the room before continuing onward, not knowing where the treasure is, before approaching the figure. Magnesis automatically deactivates as he reaches out and touches the strange eye symbol on the front of the blue light bars. The bars and eye begin to glow brightly, before bursting. Astor shields his face before realizing it's not going to affect him, having felt nothing but seeing the bits of light dissipating around him. He looks up at the figure, who he now sees is evidently a mummified corpse, when he hears a voice within his mind.

"Your resourcefulness in overcoming this trial speaks to the promise of a hero... Well done. For your efforts, please take this Spirit Orb."

Astor watches as an orb exits the mummy and enters his chest in a mild burst of light. He touches the spot on his chest, wondering what the hell the mummy just did to him, as the mummy begins to dissipate into greenish particles. Astor blinks, but finds himself outside the shrine after one blink lasted a little too long. He's still touching his chest as he looks around now, brow furrowed in confusion, and spots Rhoam gliding down toward him. "Well, how'd it go in there?" "I didn't find any treasure but I think the dead guy in there did something to me." Rhoam looks at him thoughtfully for a moment before continuing. "Perhaps what he gave you _was_ the treasure?" Astor tilts his head at Rhoam, curious. "How did you know he gave me something?" "Clairvoyance! Ho ho, or perhaps just something similar." Astor thinks about that, something about the word felt familiar yet he couldn't put his finger on it. Like it was related to a mere echo of a memory. "Huh... alright. I found this outside though." He pulls out that little stone he fished from the pond, walking closer as he does, and shows it to Rhoam. "Nice find, looks like a piece of amber! It's the least valuable gemstone one could find, but it's valuable nonetheless. A piece like that should fetch you thirty rupees!"

"Nice... Is thirty enough for the paraglider? I don't know how I'd give you whatever the dead guy put in my chest." Rhoam chuckles again, and though Astor is still confused he presumes thirty isn't enough rupees.

"You'll see how those treasures can come in handy when you get the rest, there are only three more to collect. Perhaps you'll be able to see more from the top of the tower, hm?" Rhoam smiles a little as Astor looks up at the tower. "It was easier getting up there the first time...." "Let me tell you something about that sheikah slate of yours." Astor looks back at Rhoam, curious, and pulls out his slate as the older man continues to speak. "On your map you should see a little symbol for the tower. The slate is a special thing, I've heard you can teleport with it. Why don't you try that?" Astor presses the tower's symbol, and presses the "teleport" button when it appears, dissipating into a ton of light blue strands of light. In a moment he reforms on the circle on top of the tower, and goes to the edge and waves at Rhoam. "IT WORKS!!!" Rhoam waves back, and watches as Astor walks along the edge to find the next shrine, soon spotting one amongst the ruins of at least one building in the distance. Inspecting his detailed map, he places a pin on it where he thinks the shrine must be, and teleports back to the Magnesis shrine.

Rhoam watches Astor reform on the platform in front of him, and the younger man looks up at him excitedly. "I found the next one, over in some ruins!" "Great! There's still a good amount of daylight left and it's on the way to my cabin, let's head there. Lead the way!" He follows as Astor walks ahead, watching his map a bit more than where he's walking, so Rhoam decides to keep an eye out for any trouble. Hopefully the seer would gain some better awareness of his surroundings before he's able to leave the plateau.


	4. Chapter 3: Astor Learns to Fear Guardians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> uh oh sisters! no cubes to crush these with!

As Astor and Rhoam walk to the next shrine, the path is clear and calm. Any monsters they would have encountered were killed on the way to the tower, and Astor determined the quickest path was over the hills instead of past the bokoblin camp near the broken bridge. Astor stopped to look over the edge of the plateau when they passed a spot where the wall was broken a lot more, but when they reached the top of the hill right before the ruins Astor could see there was a lot more open space along the edge. He also could see the top of the shrine poking out above the walls, so he ran down the hill, starting to slide as Rhoam shouted "Careful!" He ended up tumbling down the last couple feet, only left with a few scrapes and some dirt scuffs on him. He sat up and was brushing himself off as Rhoam made his way over to Astor, having went down the side that wasn't too steep to walk on. He holds his hand out to Astor to help him up, and upon standing the much shorter man laughs a bit. "Looks like I'll have to be a bit more careful, huh?" "Definitely, especially in those ruins." Astor then turns to look at the ruins warily. "What's in there?"

"Guardians," Rhoam explains. "They're quite old and decayed, but I heard they still can function." Astor nods contemplatively once more, not exactly sure what a guardian is. As though he can tell this, Rhoam points to a guardian husk in a nearby puddle. "That there's a guardian, but one which did not withstand the test of time. If they have even a sliver of life left in them, though, they can kill a Hylian with a single shot..." Astor, looking at the puddle guardian, does not notice as Rhoam shudders, recalling the last few moments of his own life. Despite having a century to reflect on it, the memory still scares him. He looks down at the still living Hylian when said Hylian speaks. "That's quite terrifying...." "It truly is. You'll have to be fast to evade them, and luckily there are places to hide from the ones which cannot walk." Astor nods, looking at his map to plan his path. The only issue was that he didn't know where the guardians were, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue. At least, not until they spotted him, but that's a bridge to cross when encountered. "I'm going in." "Good luck, I'll be elsewhere-- Ah, let me see your map first." Astor hands Rhoam the slate, and Rhoam looks through the map before tapping on the screen a couple times and handing it back, Astor seeing a new glowing pin on a spot he hasn't been to yet. "There's my cabin. You'll be able to find me near it later, alright?" Astor, who doesn't remember being alone outside of a shrine at any point, hesitates for a moment. "Uh, alright. Thank you, I'll see you there." Rhoam pats the little Hylian on the shoulder before heading off, and Astor starts heading into the ruins.

Astor enters through a crumbled stone brick wall, toward the middle of this side of the ruins, looking around for any possibly functioning guardians, and looking cautiously from side to side as he reaches the opposite wall. He sneaks down the path to his right, following the path he planned out, and peeks through the somehow still intact doorframe. The big opening had too many guardians, but looked safe enough. Maybe they all deactivated while he was still asleep. He steps in and almost immediately hears something like stone grinding against stone, turning toward the noise to see a guardian in the middle of the area moving. The gears between the head and body glow faintly, blue, and the eye lights up when the head faces him. He dashes back around the door, seeing the guardian still sitting there, and notices it didn't start glowing like the little orange one. He watches this one, confused, looking for any signs that it would shoot at him, but it just stares back with its cold, unblinking eye which has waves of blue rippling throughout. he slowly comes back out, into the area, and the guardian continues to watch. He continues to watch it as he shuffles sideways along the wall, glancing at the pillar near it every so often to see how much closer he was getting. When he decides he's close enough, he makes a break for it and hides behind it, hoping the guardian's laser couldn't damage or push it onto him. He assesses the rocks blocking the doorway, and climbs over them with less struggling, and makes it to the 'room' containing the shrine. He breathes a sigh of relief, and enters the second shrine.

This shrine's beginning room looks a lot like the previous one, except cracked stone cubes block the path forward. Wondering if there's a magnesis rune that affects stone, he places the sheikah slate on the pedestal and watches the light drip onto the screen. Astor watches in surprise as two boxes begin to glow, revealing a circle and a square with little loops on top before saying "Bomb Rune Acquired." _Bombs, huh?_ Astor activates the circular bomb rune, and watches as a blue glowing orb appears on top of the sheikah slate. He almost drops both when it appears, as it startled him, but steadies himself and picks up the bomb by its loop. He inspects it, noticing the "detonate" button on the slate's screen, and decides to toss the bomb down by the blocks. He prepares for it to possibly explode on impact, but it rolls away after hitting the ground with a mere thud. He backs away a little and presses "detonate," seeing that the explosion isn't awfully large, but seems powerful as the cubes are reduced to rubble, which vanishes shortly after. He wonders if the bombs make things vanish as well.

He continues along the path, turning right first and rolling a bomb to the blocks when he sees them. He detonates it again, and goes to see what was concealed. He opens the treasure chest to find a traveler's sword, which he promptly attaches to his outfit between the torch and one of his sticks. He wishes it came with a sheath, but he'll take what he can get. He then goes down the path to destroy the other cubes blocking his way, and climbs the ladder he finds behind them. He turns to his right to see a floating platform moving from the ledge in front of him to another ledge with more cubes. He switches to the cube bomb rune and places it on the platform when it's paused at his side and detonates it as the platform stops at the other side, smiling a bit at the effectiveness. He steps onto the platform when it returns, and successfully keeps his balance as it carries him across. Continuing onward, he finds a larger room which has a lot more cubes and some things moving back and forth rhythmically-- the things were rectangular and tan with intricate designs featuring glowing blue circles on them, and to the left he could see that they were launching an orb and a treasure chest back and forth. deciding that treasure chest was more trouble than it's probably worth, he looks to the right to inspect the lone launcher. He finds a little funnel which leads to an opening when the thing's at its lowest point, and after looking forward to the pile of stone cubes he could determine what it was meant for. He rolled a bomb into the funnel, and watched it fly across the room and land on the stones, which he promptly destroys. Path now open, he runs down the stairs and climbs the ladder, heading to the mummified sheikah monk. He touches the eye symbol, watches the 'cage' burst, and reluctantly accepts another spirit orb. Soon returned to the outside, he sees the sun is quite lower. He wonders if time passes differently in the shrines or something as he blows up the rocks he used to climb earlier, finding a doorway. 

He wonders how those rocks got there as he walks out and assesses the area. He sees a doorway across from where he first entered, and remembering the guardian, he decides to run to the door right away. He hears it start up when he runs by, but trips on some discarded bricks that were concealed by the grass, sending the sheikah slate flying. Panicking now, he gets up and runs over to grab it, looking through the grass where it should have fell. Finding it, he holds it up both triumphantly and to inspect it for any damage, but this was a mistake. He sees a little red laser appear and work to focus on the slate, turning back to the guardian quickly to see it glowing a bright, angry pink. He throws it out the door, and gets up only to see the laser now focusing on him. He dives out the door as he hears a loud beep, soon feeling and hearing an explosion behind him. He decides not to look back as he books it for the cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little shorter because i think the next event needs its own chapter :)


	5. Chapter 4: Astor's first night out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first night in a hundred years that he gets to choose to sleep..... :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> his nightmare is a little dark but not any more than what we see in age of calamity

Returning to his cabin, Rhoam finds Astor sitting and leaning back against the wall, panting and looking disheveled. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why?" Astor looks up at his friend with a smallish smile, speaking between pants. He wasn't made for running, and had practically collapsed against the cabin when he ran out of adrenaline. "You look quite exhausted." Astor laughs a bit, wiping sweat from his forehead and brushing hair off his face in one motion. "Oh, I am _very_ exhausted. The guardian, I thought it was too broken because it wasn't shooting at me when I first went in, but nooo, it was after I tripped that it decided to try to shoot at me. I like, barely dodged it!" Rhoam kneels in front of Astor, sympathetic with the latter's fear. "Thankfully you are alive, and that they are bound to where they rest amongst the ruins. Do you need anything?" Astor looks down for a moment to think. "Ah, just some water probably...." Rhoam nods and goes into his cabin to get a pitcher and a cup, opening a barrel of water and taking some from there. He's glad he had time to get fresh water while Astor was busy in the shrines, as he returns with a glass of water and watches as the now-disowned-by-ganon prophet practically chugs it. Rhoam sets the pitcher next to him. "I've got to finish chopping wood to cook some dinner, alright? The cabin is safe, you haven't got to worry." He turns and walks away when Astor gives him a thumbs-up, still drinking water.

A short while later, Astor goes to see what Rhoam is up to and finds him chopping logs up, using a tree stump as a table to set each log on. Astor watches him for a bit before speaking up. "Is there, um, anything I could do to help with dinner?" Rhoam chuckles again, saying "No, I've got everything ready to cook it as soon as I'm done here. If you want to do something though, there are plenty of mushrooms to collect around my cabin and on that boulder near it if you'd like." "Alright... Thank you, Rhoam." Astor walks back to the cabin as Rhoam continues to chop wood, and begins picking mushrooms as he sees them. He collects several stamella shrooms, rushrooms, and a couple more Hylian shrooms, finishing as the sun gets closer to setting and Rhoam begins to cook dinner. Astor returns with his shirt as a makeshift mushroom bag, trying to keep the food in his bag clean, and finds Rhoam using the cooking pot by the fire. Whatever he's cooking sizzles as he moves it, and smells pretty good, so Astor moves closer to see it. He sees several cuts of meat, several bird drumsticks to be specific but it's not like Astor knows that, being cooked amongst various other things. He's a bit mesmerized, watching for a bit before Rhoam speaks up. "Do you want to get some plates? It should be almost done- and you can leave the mushrooms on one of the tables inside." "Thank you, I'll get on that." Astor goes inside, dumps the mushrooms onto a side table, shakes and brushes any remaining dirt off of his shirt outside and soon returns with two forks and two plates. He holds the plates out, and Rhoam takes one before using the ladle to scoop the bird legs onto his and Astor's plates along with some of the other ingredients- including more hylian shrooms, hylian herbs and some spicy peppers. When both plates were full and each had a fork, the two men sat down, each on their own side of the fire and ate their dinner. Rhoam felt that he could have done a better job but Astor thought the meal was delicious.

The sun goes down as they eat, and soon it's nearly dark, the last of the sunlight fading rather quickly. Astor sets his empty plate down next to himself, stretches, and yawns. "Tired?" Rhoam inquires, picking at his food. "Yes. Have you got a sleeping bag or something like that?" Rhoam chuckles before responding, "I have one, but you may have the bed inside. It may be a while before I lie down, still, and I camp outside more often than I use it anyway." "You're sure??" Astor is almost taken aback; this is definitely the most hospitable man he ever could have met, isn't there a catch? "Of course! It's no luxury bed, but I'm sure you'd like that more than the ground. You're being my treasure hunter anyway, it wouldn't be too good if you were to wake up with aches anywhere." "Fair enough... Thank you." Astor smiles a little before getting up and heading inside, ready to pass out. He removes all the same items he had when he took a swim earlier, and practically collapses onto the thin little bed. He shifts until he's covered and comfortable enough, and falls asleep practically the moment he stops moving and closes his eyes.

And then he finds himself standing elsewhere. He knows what he's doing here, he's here to prevent the master sword from being pulled. Obviously. But he looks around at his surroundings regardless, seeing a faint green-gray mist surrounding him in a forest of trees and grass short enough to make one think this is supposed to be a path. Funny, he went _off_ the path to get here, but it could be just another path. He looks down in front of himself to see two men dressed in red and black kneeling before him, and he feels himself smile maliciously. "You two are about to fulfill your grand purpose," He says, he knows he says it as it's definitely his voice, albeit laced with malicious intent. The two men look up at him suddenly, out of fear or excitement? It definitely becomes fear when he reaches out toward them with his right hand, cloaked in a dark purple sleeve that seemed to be falling apart at the edges. He turns his palm upward, seeming to cause the two to spasm, shaking erratically and starting to scream as reddish, glowing orbs not too unlike the ones he collected in the shrines emerge from their chests. When the orbs fully leave them, they collapse. Limp as marionettes whose strings have been cut. Astor clenches his fist and watches as they are sent into the orb in his left hand, making it glow a little brighter. "Yes... Now for phase two." He visualizes a rough map of the forest he's in- the Lost Woods, right- and selects four spaces to send specially made malice to. He only wishes he could watch without having to do anything, as he walks toward the center of the woods. He reaches a sunnier space, and sits in front of the sacred Blade of Evil's Bane, and then his vision shifts to that of someone, or something, in a different place in the forest. Water surrounds a tree he must have appeared by, and his vision is tinted pink as he locks eyes with the red and white Zora he's now controlling a copy of. 

"What is that thing?!" She cries out, holding the trident Astor made a copy of in a defensive position. Astor realizes this malice hollow only sees Mipha, mentally sending it the order to copy her moves and fighting style and to kill her as he shifts his vision to the malice copy of the Rito. He makes it dodge right as an arrow narrowly misses, and makes it fly into the air and give chase to the Rito he's put so much effort into copying. He gives it the same orders, and switches his view to that of the towering hollow made to look like the Goron champion. The malice-made Boulder Breaker was clashing with the real one, and Astor still could not see the princess or her knight. That's what he's looking for, and to reinforce the strength of his hollows. He directs it to do the same as the first two, to make sure that he hadn't interfered with his own programming within the malice, and switches to the view of the malice chief of the Gerudo. She already ruined his plans once, and he found her trying to do it again as he found himself now locked in a duel with her. He makes the clone dance away, as that's somehow how the chief moves her fastest, and looks back toward the entrance of this clearing. _There._ The princess cowered at the entrance with her dear knight, and a young Sheikah woman. He dodges Urbosa's rhythmic advance and mimics it as he makes his hollow advance upon the trio he was searching for.

The knight and the Sheikah girl attack first, but the princess joins them, which surprises him. This soon becomes a dangerous game of cat and mouse, four cats against one mouse, but Urbosa makes quick work of the hollow with her lightning when Astor is just half a step too slow. His vision switches back to the sunny area, and he's aggravated. His head hurts and he rubs it, groaning, as he prepares for a counterattack. He stands up, raises his orb above his head and yells. "Defend the others! NOW!" The orb glows more vibrantly, creating a temporary dome around the area with pink light which holds many more constellations than the few which rotated around the orb already. He closes his eyes and visualizes the forest, seeing glimpses of more monsters entering and skeletal ones digging their way up from the dirt. He switches his vision to see how his Goron hollow is faring, and can feel that it is weaker as he watches the wretched trio and Gerudo chief enter the clearing. He summons some red chuchus before checking on Revali, who's malice clone is found getting up from the ground. It is much weaker, and Astor only hopes that it's at least learning his fighting style as it gets its ass kicked. He switches to Mipha and finds that she's faring too well against her hollow too. He has to make it get up after finding it face down in the murky water, and as he turns around he's met with another bash from a red, round, and unfortunately hard object. He has no idea what just hit him, or rather his hollow, but it sucks to be face down in the mud again. "Go Hestu! Keep hitting it!" he hears the Zora princess cheer as he soon feels his malice clone dissipate, leaving him feeling ill and dizzy and back in the all too sunny middle of the forest. Holding his head he raises the orb once again, only his intention needed as he summons more monsters. He summons a lot, as by the time he finishes with the second group of monsters he feels that his third hollow is defeated. He isn't sure which one it is, though, and soon after that, the last one is gone. Their malice remnants all have returned to his orb when he sees the princess enter with her knight. He is filled with barely imaginable rage.

Astor wakes up quickly and sits up, unsettled by the bits and pieces he remembers from the dream. Murder of people wearing the symbol he sees in and on the shrines, evil purple and red muck clones, such immense rage- all done or felt by him. He shudders, hugging his legs to his chest and hoping it was just an awfully weird dream. After recovering, pushing that dream to the back of his mind, he opens his eyes and notices that everything's lighting back up. He decides to look at his sheikah slate, seeing the same eye symbol once more- realizing its not upside down or red like on those people's masks- and checks the time.

6:34 am. Morning... right? Yeah. Morning.

He gets up and re-equips everything, and decides to teleport to the tower, but after looking outside and finding Rhoam, who offers him a baked apple, he decides he wants to stay for breakfast first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made minor revisions today (1/21/21) and also realized upon reviewing the cabin in the game that it's just,,, a slab of wood with straw on it. I only hope it would be more comfortable than dirt but the straw at least is probably better than the stone chamber in the shrine of resurrection jfhfheurg


	6. Chapter 5: The Missing Ingredient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old Mr. Rhoam forgets his not-so-secret ingredient, as per usual

Astor walked out and sat next to the cooking pot, accepting the baked apple happily. He decided to eat it while looking over his map, but before he could actually open the map on the sheikah slate, Rhoam got his attention.

"Astor?" The younger man looked up, swallowing a bite of the apple before answering. "Ah, yes?" "I've located one of the shrines you have yet to reach," Rhoam stated with a kind tone and warm smile. "Really? Where is it?" Astor watches as Rhoam turns away from him and points up. Confused at first, he follows the direction Rhoam is pointing at until he spots a familiar structure... which is unfortunately above the edge of the tallest cliff he's ever seen. His jaw drops, and if he were to think about it he'd be glad he hadn't taken another bite of his food before Rhoam pointed out the way too far away shrine. Alas, he was still staring in awe at the size of the cliff when Rhoam turned back to him and chuckled. "Looks like a bit of a doozy to get there, no? Ho ho," he chuckled. Astor was not reassured by that sound this time. "Y-yeah..." He stares up at the shrine for a bit longer before opening his map and hoping there's a way around that cliff. That cliff is way too tall, if he managed to climb high enough it would hurt too much on the way back down! Inspecting the map while continuing to eat, he traces out a path that appears to be safer, at least vertically-- and that would involve going beyond what appears to be a gate near the ruined building, notably labeled the Temple of Time. As he finishes his apple, he looks back up at Rhoam, who's having a similar breakfast but on a pointed stick. "I think I've found a better path there, but what's beyond the gate? At least it looks like a gate...?" He looks back down, furrowing his brow a bit as Rhoam stands up and walks over.

"Where do you plan to go?" "I was thinking of scouting it out from the tower a bit first, but it looks like I can reach it if I go past this little thing near the, uh, Temple of Time." He points it out, showing the slate to Rhoam, as the latter nods. "That's a gate alright, but it's quite cold beyond it. You'd have to cook something to keep you warm, or I could let you borrow a spare shirt and some gloves-" "Gloves?" "Ho ho, eager aren't you? Yes, I've got some clothes that can keep the cold at bay, but I'll have to ask you to help me with a little something else to get it." The younger man looked down for a moment, as though considering his options, before looking back up to inquire, "What's that going to be?" Rhoam smiles a little once more as he pulls out a small booklet from his own bag, which is noticeably larger than Astor's as well. "See, I'd made the perfect recipe for traversing the frigid side of this plateau," he says, flipping through the pages, "but I forgot one key ingredient as I wrote it down." He holds the booklet out to Astor, showing a partially filled page.

Recipe: Spicy Meat and Seafood Fry

A filling dish made from cooking meat (Raw meat, basic cut) and fresh seafood (???) together with spicy peppers (Abundant on this plateau!)

The parentheses next to 'seafood' were pretty indiscernible, though Astor could make out parts of a few words, including but not limited to 'staminoka,' 'snail,' and 'porgy'. The scribbled out bits took up more than the written portions, evidently made larger with continued attempts at recreating the recipe. "Think you could help me figure it out?" Rhoam asked, pulling the booklet away and tucking it back into his bag. "Sure, but it'll put a bit of a delay on getting the treasure." "No worries about that, Astor. Sometimes a good meal is worth more than any treasure!" He chuckles yet again before adding, "Though the treasure generally lasts longer." "I'm sure it does!" Astor stands up now, hoping he'll be able to reach the shrine safely as he makes sure he has everything equipped. Once he determines he's good to go, he taps on the tower's icon on his map and watches as he begins to glow blue.

Finding himself atop the tower once more, he scans the area for landmarks, and spots the gate that leads to the colder side of the plateau. He doesn't see a clear, smooth path leading to the clifftop shrine, but it looks like he'd still have much less dangerous climbing to do to reach it. He looks toward the right to see the final shrine, and another tower in the distance beyond it. Judging by the amount of snow beyond the gate, he's definitely going to need that extra shirt Rhoam was talking about, so he decides to tackle that first. He teleports down to the first shrine he'd explored to start looking for whatever he could find on this plateau that counts as 'seafood'. Still looking at his map when he reappears at the shrine, he notices a good amount of blue splotches that are nearby. Blue splotches which definitely represent water, the darker ones evidently being water deep enough to swim in. He didn't remember any fish being in the small pond near the shrine yesterday, but looks over it once to make sure while he's here- nope, completely devoid of any fish, let alone any pond creatures that could be big enough to be considered food. So he goes on to the pond covering the stairs. He steps up onto a still-intact platform to look into the water, and sees his own reflection, clear and staring back up at him. He stares at it for a moment before noticing movement behind it- focusing on that and watching it swim beyond, he realizes it's a green fish! Thinking, hoping, that this is the missing ingredient, he draws his bow and aims carefully at the fish, loosing the arrow when it stops for a moment.

Not knowing if there's anything in the water that might eat the fish, he runs away from the pond and turns back, going around the platform he'd shot the fish from and climbing into the water to grab the fish. As he stepped into the water he had two thoughts; that he hoped his bag and whatnot were waterproof, and that he realized he felt kind of bad about killing the fish, watching another fish swimming up to the one he'd shot. It swam away quickly when he retrieved what he hoped wasn't it's friend, and he exited the pond through the remnants of the stairs. He wishes he'd have asked for gloves, as the fish was uncomfortably cold and slimy, but started to make his way back to the cabin anyway when he heard someone call to him.

"Ho, Astor! This way!" It was Rhoam, but he had no idea where he was yelling from. He looked around, the voice seemed to be coming from the forest some distance to his right, but didn't see his friend at first. "Rhoam?!" He called out, still looking when he saw the other man step up on top of a nearby hill. "Up here, there's a cooking pot this way too!" Astor wondered how he'd gotten there so fast, as he made his way up the crumbling stairs to meet Rhoam on the hill. Rhoam led the much shorter man down a bit into the forest, where they soon reached a smaller campsite of sorts with part of an archway nearby. Astor watched as his friend used a special arrow to light a fire under the cooking pot- the tip looked like a little flame. "What kind of arrow is that?" Astor asked, and Rhoam chuckled at his question. "A fire arrow!" Well, that made sense. "They're a little hard to come by, but they're real helpful at times like this. Why don't you set your catch on the log, I'll get a boar for the meat." Astor sets the fish on the nearby log, finding a fancier-looking bow and some more arrows as well as a few peppers already on the log. He places his boko bow down, replacing it with the slightly better and apparently newer Traveler's bow. He practices nocking an arrow with it and pulls the string back, liking that this one feels a little stronger than the stick with a string knotted to it he'd been using previously. He takes the arrow off the bowstring and places it back in one of his quivers along with the newer arrows, and attaches the bow to one of the leather straps he got with his shirt. 

He decides to check on what's in his bag while he waits, determining that nothing got too wet when Rhoam returns with a dead boar, dragging it behind him. He leaves it near the cooking pot as he digs through his pack, finding a hunting knife and noticing Astor's new bow. "I thought you'd like an upgrade, I found that in the woods here while I was collecting wood for the cooking pot. Does it work well?" Astor smiles and nods. "Yeah, as far as I can tell! It seems a good bit stronger than the one the bokoblins made." Rhoam smiles back at him before turning back to the boar. "That's good," He answers, kneeling by the animal. "Better weapons are always a good thing to find." Astor looks away as Rhoam cuts up the boar, noticing that an arrow is still in the fish he'd shot. He decides to busy himself with removing it, trying to get it out carefully, but unfortunately there's already fish remains on it. He looks at the now exposed arrowhead in mild dismay, as it's covered in smears of red and smells more like fish than he cares for. He puts it in the quiver with fewer arrows before realizing that its mostly his hands that smell like the dead fish, and wishes more that he would have at least thought of gloves earlier. He shrugs off his equipment as Rhoam continues cutting up the animal.

"I'm going to clean my hands off, I'll be right back- Have you got more extra gloves or only the ones for the cold?" "Only those ones, sorry, and I don't think they're fishproof." "... Alright, thanks." Astor heads back to the ponds, bringing along a stick just in case. He spends a good amount of time trying to get the fish smell off his hands, but it only mildly decreases after his strenuous efforts. He'll be glad when he rediscovers soap, as the smell of dead fish is getting more upsetting each moment it persists. Rhoam finds him in the middle of another cycle of trying to clean his hands in a puddle, getting them wet, rubbing his hands, wiping them on the grass and repeating. Three times by the time Rhoam finally reaches him. "Hey, I've got everything ready to cook- are you alright?" Astor shoves his hands into the puddle, made murky by now, again. His voice sounds strained, like he's rather stressed or even angry. "Will be soon, when I don't smell fish anymore." "I'm sorry to inform you that you're going to smell it again when we start cooking lunch." "I just want it off my hands, Rhoam," Astor says as he wipes his hands on the grass, only succeeding in getting pieces of grass torn up. "... Why don't you come back to the campsite? It'll come off eventually, and you've got to eat." Astor pauses, contemplatively, then stands up instead of trying to clean his hands again and sighs. "Yes, you're right. Thanks." He follows Rhoam back to the campsite, where the latter had set some apples out to bake while he retrieved Astor. He gives one to the younger man as he finishes chopping up peppers to toss into the cooking pot.

"How long does this take to make?" Astor asks, biting the treat after. He thinks apples must be his favorite fruit, though he doesn't know how many there are at this time. He recalls the two men clad in red from his dreams, and how their earrings somewhat resembled something-- _bananas._ Astor doesn't quite remember what one of those is but he feels like he doesn't like them. "Just a bit- I don't know specifically, but I know I can smell when it's done." Astor just nods as a response, still eating his baked fruit. He only hopes that if he can smell the fish, it won't smell too similar to when it was raw. Rhoam tosses in the peppers, then the boar meat and fish cuts together, stirring them around. He's concerned about Astor's strange behavior, but doesn't know if it would be a good idea to question him about it. From what he can read of Astor's thoughts, the amnesiac didn't even seem to notice anything was wrong or strange. Rhoam only hopes that when he leaves the plateau he won't get stuck anywhere similarly, nor revert to how he'd been before the one hundred year coma. Rhoam has a feeling he witnessed something Astor may have been like when he worked for Ganon, and that possibility made the old king worry for his daughter, his kingdom, and even the former prophet of doom himself. Astor is just sitting there hoping the smell of fish won't stick in the gloves he's going to get.

Soon enough, the dish was finished, and both men once again sat on opposite sides of the fire as they ate. Astor enjoyed the meal a lot, he even forgot about his earlier struggle as he ate. Rhoam wrote "Hyrule Bass" into his little booklet when he finished his meal, and pulled a folded up warm doublet from his pack, gloves inside. Astor earned it.


	7. Chapter 6: Clifftop Shrine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this man still needs to climb but at least he's not climbing too high or for too long

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> minor wound description ahead in case youre concerned with that, i tried to keep the description mild or vague enough

Rhoam sets the folded shirt on the log next to Astor, who's still eating.

"There it is, gloves and all. Should keep you warm enough to stave off the cold." Astor finishes his early-ish lunch in a few quick bites. "Thank you, Rhoam. I really appreciate it." He smiles a little up at his friend, before setting his plate and fork next to the log and getting ready for his trip to the frigid yet-unknown. He takes off his leather gear and pulls the doublet over his head, tucking his hair behind his ears when it's on properly. He reequips everything, double checks that he's got it all- Arrows, three sticks, torch, traveler's sword and traveler's bow, everything still in his little bag- and heads back up the hill to take the path around the Temple of Time.

He climbs the ruined stone stairs, and locks eyes with a bokoblin at the top of the first set of them. He takes out one of his sticks and holds it up to block the enemy's club from bashing him in the face. He manages to shove the bokoblin backward, and while it's trying to keep its balance he takes it out in a few hits, though it breaks part of his stick. He inspects the broken end as the bokoblin disappears in a purple puff of smoke, determining it to still be usable enough. The broken end is mildly jagged, but not enough that stabbing would be any more effective, so he sets it back on his belt. He picks up the teeth and horn left by the slain monster, then takes out the traveler's bow, expecting more bokoblins ahead- finding one in one of the smaller ruined buildings and another in front of the temple itself, taking each out in just a couple shots. He continues his hike, walking toward the back of the temple until he finds more ruined stairs that lead up to the gate, which he then follows up.

He stops at the gate when he reaches it, staring beyond and feeling the cool air drifting out. He hears the faint rumbling of the waterfall as he looks up at the distant, final shrine. He feels a bit sad, knowing that he'll be leaving soon and not knowing when he'd next see Rhoam after he does leave, but remembering the important job he's meant to do, he steps through the gate.

It's cold. Colder than where he woke up, but somehow much, much colder than it had been just outside the gate. He exhales to see his breath form a little cloud in front of him before it disappears, and noticing that his ears are _extremely_ cold he resolves to head toward that shrine before they could turn to ice. He continues on the path, soon leaving it to go up the hill in the snow, to his left. A little ways up, he finds a wide opening that looks like it could make for a good path to the shrine, so he climbs up the few feet to see where it goes. He soon reaches the edge toward the shrine, but can only see the face of the cliff it's above. He notices all the little ledges along it, but still thinks this is the better way to go as he turns back to continue up the snowy path. He looks up the cliff to his left as he returns to the opening he'd climbed up and hopes there's a less tall, less steep way ahead. His teeth are chattering a bit as he reaches a ridge at the top of this section of the path, and he checks the sheikah slate to see how much farther he has to go. Seeing it's really close, he looks over the edge of the cliff on the far left of the little ridge to see the orange glow of the shrine. Then he begins to plan how to get down, as there are a few cliffs now between him and the third shrine.

Making his way along the edge, he finds a somewhat less steep part of the rockface where his cliff meets a taller one. He slides down as carefully as one _can_ slide down a rough rock wall, he almost falls forward when he reaches the drop. Thankfully he manages to keep his balance, but the broken stick grazed him on the way down- it actually tore a hole in his pants near the cuff of his right leg and scratched him, so firstly he took it off his belt and threw it off the cliff ahead. After searching his bag for anything to tend to the scratch, which really wasn't all too bad, he opted instead for a different plan which he'll do when he reaches the shrine. He was thankful for the only vaguely steep path that led to it off of the cliff he slid down, and soon was watching this shrine open before him too. Stepping onto the elevator inside, he waited to see what awaits below.

Before assessing his surroundings beyond the massive spinning thing ahead, he goes off to the side and takes most of his items off once more, save for the dingy ass clothes he found in the cave. He sits down and stretches out the leg that got scratched to look at it, rolling up his pant leg and cringing a bit while regretting keeping the stick when it broke. It wasn't as bad as it looked, of course, but it's not like this guy knew. The amount of blood said otherwise, as it had already soaked into the fabric where it got torn. He looks at the doublet and, seeing the pockets, digs through them to look for any kind of bandages. Finding none, he instead takes the cream colored shirt off and uses his sword to cut half of one of the sleeves off. The sleeves only went a little past his elbows so it should be fine- but after some consideration he cut off the same amount of sleeve on the other side, making it just a little more tattered but leaving it symmetrical and getting more fabric to use as a makeshift bandage. Putting it back on, he kicks off his right boot and pulls the two-ply bandage up to the wound and only hopes it'll stay as he reequips everything. 

He soon goes over to the guidance stone, watching the light form a droplet and noticing the lines of sheikah text that seem to be pouring into it. He hardly gets enough time to wonder about it as it vanishes, falling onto the slate and revealing a yellow rectangular shape with a loop on the top- _A lock!_ Astor was excited for a moment to have recognized something through memory, and watched as the screen changed to say "Stasis Rune Acquired." Now occupied with whatever Stasis could do, he activated it to find it acting like Magnesis- Opening a camera and outlining things with yellow bars all over- but instead highlighting the massive gear in yellow, turning greenish when he aimed the crosshairs at it. Watching the platform it rotated, he realized it had to be used to progress, so waited for it to line up with the ground before pressing the "Activate" button. When activated, it created holographic chains around the gear, leaving it highlighted with yellow but now blinking in sync with an almost metallic note coming from the sheikah slate. Astor decided to run across, turning back to see the gear blinking quickly as the repetitive tone sped up, and suddenly both stopped as the gear continued rotating. "Huh... alright." Astor turned suddenly as he heard a loud thud, watching something move between a line of bars before being revealed as a massive stone sphere, and falling into the pit that Astor now noticed was in this shrine. He swallows nervously, watching the orb fade into the darkness before hearing another, identical thud. Death by orb looked more painful than falling into the pit.

He looked up, watching it roll by again, and slowly walked up to where it will roll when it's dropped again. He activates the rune when it's in front of him, causing the ball to stop, and knowing he doesn't have much time he runs immediately up the ramp. He has to stop and breathe for a bit when he reaches the next level, jumping when he hears a much louder thud coming from behind him, but calming down when he hears it just roll by. He looks at the last portion of the shrine, thinking this one seems short, but seeing the giant sphere blocking the path ahead. He sighs, glancing at the sledgehammer and thinking he should have kept the stick for this actually, before getting up and approaching the sledgehammer. The context clues tell him that he needs to freeze the sphere and hit it with the hammer, but he's mildly concerned that will either backfire or not work as he picks the sledgehammer up with his scrawny little arms. It's awfully heavy, not too much that he can't carry it but enough that he won't think it's worth keeping as a weapon.

He walks up to the sphere, activates the rune, and is surprised at the noise it makes and the holographic arrow that appears ahead when he starts hitting it. He hits it a couple more times, the orb turning orange and the arrow elongating before time runs out. He watches in awe as the sphere goes flying, bouncing off the walls even before falling into the abyss. He decides maybe he wants to keep the sledgehammer, and carries it to the monk encased ahead of him. He watches another spirit orb float into his chest, hoping there aren't going to be negative consequences from that, and soon finds himself outside the shrine again, still holding the sledgehammer. He fastens it to his belt where the broken stick was- but then opts to move it to a loop away from his leg/foot in case it could break his foot or something on accident. He then returns to the path, climbing up the smallish cliffside he slid down- much taller now that he has to climb up it- and continues to the final shrine.


	8. Chapter 7: The Final Shrine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's going to get off the great plateau! but at what cost

Astor walked back onto the snowy path, watching his breath reappear as he exhaled. He has no idea how far the last shrine will be, but it's closer now than if he teleported to the tower to check; he does not want to climb that cliff again, while it was the smallest ledge it was still about four times his height. He eyes the curving path ahead, and decides to take his bow out and nock an arrow preemptively before trudging onward through the snow. It wasn't awfully deep, but it was a little slippery, so he was walking carefully. About halfway up the first slope, he heard a noise that sounded suspiciously like a bokoblin behind the pillar ahead. He paused, waiting a bit before hearing it again, and pulled the arrow back as he snuck closer, keeping the pillar between him and it. Soon, hoping to take the monster by surprise, he steps out from his shelter and shoots it in the nose. _Uh oh, that's new,_ he thought as he noticed it was blue instead of the familiar reddish-brown. He quickly drew another arrow to incapacitate the now enraged pig monster again as it started to get up, firing when it glares at him. As son as he let the arrow loose, he drew the small sword he'd found in the bomb shrine from his belt and ran over to finish it off. Clearly this one was stronger than the others he'd seen, or it would have disappeared in the familiar puff of smoke at the second shot.

He was panicking a little, hoping it wasn't too much stronger than the others as he hit it as much as he could while it was down. It started to get up again, but thankfully as it was about to stand Astor defeated it. Watching it disappear, he looks down at his sword with the concern that it's not quite adequate enough. It could definitely at least use a good sharpening, hopefully he could find a blacksmith if not a better sword off the plateau. He replaced the sword into the loop he has on his belt and went to loot the remains, finding a couple teeth, a horn, and _what in the hell is that purple thing. Oh no it's moving._ He watched the bokoblin heart pulsate in the snow for a few moments before picking it up, staring at it with disgust. He only puts the thing in his bag because he has a feeling it will be of some use later. Thankfully it can go in a spot separate from the mushrooms. Astor then turns and looks up the larger, probably steeper part of his path. _Lovely,_ he thinks sarcastically as he trudges up. He grabs his sword again after a few steps, as he can't see if anything's at the top.

It flattened somewhat after a curve to the right, and he could now look over a lot of this new area and even some of the lower plateau. He admires the view of the waterfall, the tower and the ruined Temple of Time for a few moments before continuing, turning left and reaching a bit of a dip in the path- less effort to walk through as it was basically flat, but the snow was a good bit deeper so unfortunately it wasn't that much better. He walked past the large chunk of mountain that had obscured his view and looked up at the mountain ahead. He decided to check the sheikah slate's map once more, noting that he was looking up the side of Mount Hylia. Climbing up may be a detour but it could also be helpful, so he continued through the deep snow and made his way up the path that wrapped around this mountain. Even just a little ways up, he could see the menacing silhouette of the castle in the distance; a reminder of why he's here. Why he's on the plateau, and why now he has powdery snow stuck to his unfortunately thin pants halfway up to his knees. He wondered for a bit what'll happen after he completes his mission, but continued upwards after a few moments. It will definitely be a bridge he won't reach until it's time to cross, especially if he stays here too long and freezes his ears off.

Climbing the rest of the way, he admires the rest of what he can see off the plateau- nearly golden mountains, another tower, a valley with funny looking trees, more mountains but covered in plants, a lake, more towers- _Oh, here's the top._ Pleasantly surprised at the familiar figure he spotted next to a strange rock arrangement, he smiles. "Rhoam! When did you get up here?" The older man turns to him, almost startled by his smaller friend, and chuckles. "Astor! I hiked up here while you were busy with the other shrine. I had a feeling you'd climb up here, and I thought I'd come up and enjoy the view while I'd wait." "You can really see a lot up here, huh...?" Astor looks around at everything once more, then spotting the shrine. "Oh, there that is!" Rhoam chuckles again, "You can! Oh, and I found a gift for you on the way up here." Astor looks at him curiously as he pulls a bluish, circular shield out from his bag. "This is a soldier's shield, I don't know where the bokoblins got this but it's still quite high quality." He holds the shield out to the younger man, who accepts it and looks down at it excitedly; his first shield! "Wow... it almost looks new! Thank you..."

"Of course! Did you know you can also surf on shields? It works best on snow and sand, but grass can work as well if it's raining." "Oh, really?" Astor looks at his new shield quizzically, thinking this one's a bit small. Blinking, he gets a flash of what seems to be a premonition- he sees himself trying to shield-surf down the mountain, falling off the path and absolutely eating shit in a snow bank at the bottom. The vision fades to black and he sees a pale blue "Game Over" sign appear in the darkness, but as soon as it came to him it was gone again. "Yes, would you want to try it?" Astor hesitates for a moment before responding, "N-no, I think I'll be fine walking... thank you, though! I better head to the shrine, huh?" He looks up to judge the sun's position, shielding his eyes with his hand- it's about midday. "Don't want to be stuck here when it's getting dark, and I wouldn't want to backtrack...." Rhoam chuckles a little, patting Astor on the shoulder. "Very well, good luck! There's another camp of monsters on the way there, so be careful." "Thank you, again." Astor smiles at his friend, and waves before their view of each other is obscured as he heads back down the path. He finds a shortcut a bit ahead, and takes that path back down.

He analyzes the path up the next mountain and looks for any obstacles on the way there, seeing none between him and the path except for another small cliff- thankfully a bit smaller and less steep than the one he had to climb to get here. Upon reaching it, he tries to slide down it as he had the aforementioned one, but unfortunately somehow did it wrong and falls forward into the snow at the bottom. He gets up and brushes himself off, shivering, but glad he wasn't sent into it at high speeds before he turns to the right and continues to the shrine. He climbs over a snowy hill and sees a larger dip in the path ahead, though filled with a nearly complete circle of rocks. He furrows his brow, confused at the arrangement and slides down the hill to avoid the possibility of falling onto them. Soon walking through the middle, he eyes the rocks suspiciously as he passes, still unsure of their purpose but ultimately decides they mustn't be anything dangerous. He finds another similar rock when he crests the little hill on the other side, wondering why that one's alone as he walks past. They seem to be pointing toward the shrine, navigation maybe? Not like he could put it in the circle with his scrawny little arms, so it's not like he'll know what the rocks are for.

Looking down the path ahead, it looked like the perfect spot to try out shield surfing. He eyes it up and down a couple times to be sure, before placing the shield down and stepping onto it, kicking the ground behind him to go. He gains speed a lot faster than he thought he would, and holds his arms out to try and keep his balance on the bumpy terrain. Before he knows it, the side of the mountain is quickly approaching, so he braces himself for impact. However, he slows down shortly before it, and comes to a stop more quickly than he would have expected- opening his eyes, he sees he stopped a few feet from the rock face, and exhales a heavy sigh of relief. Shield surfing's kind of fun, but that was also scary as hell. He steps off the shield and reequips it, ready to fight the bokoblins. He draws his sword and decides to face these ones head-on, as he saw them all as three little red shapes from the top of Mount Hylia. As he starts heading up to the path, he watches multiple giant snowballs roll down the hill toward him, all missing and rolling by but revealing the bokoblins. _Looks like they're ready too,_ he thinks as a couple run back into their camp and one starts charging at him. He hits it just a couple times before it disappears, and waits for the others to come back. One starts charging at him with a boko club, which he blocks with his new shield before stabbing the bokoblin- stabbing it actually took that one out in one hit, but it also stayed on the sword until it disappeared, so that was sort of awkward. The third doesn't appear so Astor grabs the teeth and horns from its friends before going up. He sees it aiming a bow at him, and holds his shield up just in time to catch the arrow before charging to dispatch it. He loots several arrows from it excitedly, glad to have more ammunition for ranged attacks, and heads up the rest of the way to the shrine.

He looks up at the structure, standing on the platform in front of it. He has yet to activate it, but he's taking a moment to mentally prepare. After this, he's leaving the plateau. After this, the real challenges begin, whatever they may be. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, opening them to watch his breath disperse as he exhales, and then placing the slate on the pedestal. He watches the bars open, revealing the elevator, and walks inside, stepping onto the glowing blue eye. He turns to look out the door as he descends this time, seeing some snowflakes beginning to descend along with him. He smiles a little, realizing he likes watching it snow even if for a bit, before everything's obscured by the darkness. After a few moments or so, he watches the area come into view. Another pedestal, a... shallow pool? And a wall too tall to climb, all ahead. Stepping through the blue light, he goes over to the pedestal and activates it. For a moment as he watches the strange liquid coagulate into a drop, he wonders what it is, exactly. _Water? Or just some form of whatever energy powers these things, and if it's that, what is it made of?_ He stops wondering as the threads of light dissipate, and the text "Cryonis Rune Extracted" appear with a light blue shape appears in the fifth box- _That's a snowflake!_ He smiles excitedly, wondering what it'll do as he presses the box to activate it. He sees lines covering every surface through the slate's camera, just like with Magnesis or Stasis, though these were blue like the snowflake. Looking around, he noticed the water was highlighted the same light blue. Aiming the crosshairs at it, he noted that they turned into a snowflake in a square that both lined up with the angle of the water, tilting the slate to watch the alignment remain the same. He watched as the square appeared to grow upward several feet, pulsing with light as it did, and he pressed the "Activate" button, watching a huge block of glowing blue ice erupt from the middle of the shallow pool. It was also sparkly, and covered in lighter blue lines identical to the lighter stone designs outside each shrine. He looks the ice block up and down, seeing it's about the height of the wall, and also that he made it too far from the wall to use it. He wonders if he's supposed to climb this thing to go up, and tries to climb the one he already made as practice, finding it surprisingly easy- so he climbs back down, activates the rune, and makes another one closer to the wall.

As he watches it rise, he speculates that he could avoid climbing, so he activates the rune again and inspects the controls. "Activate, Freeze..." He aims the slate up at the two ice blocks, the one in the middle glowing pink when the crosshairs touch it and "Freeze" turning to "Shatter." "Oh?" He presses the new command, watching the ice block burst into pieces and evaporate instantly, startling him as much as when he dropped the metal plate in the first shrine. "Well.... Alright." Inspecting the commands a bit further, he sees there's an option to set the square directly underfoot, and upon making a new block with that changed, he finds it raising him upward, now making a path to the top of the wall with the other one with only a small gap between them. Stepping over the gap, and then onto the new floor, he looks ahead to see more water after some stairs. Walking down and stepping into the water, he sees a gate to his left, and after looking it up and down he makes another ice block under it. Walking through as it finishes raising up, he sees another one of those little robots, so he puts the slate back on his hip and pulls out his sledgehammer. It starts charging its laser as he starts charging at it, and he hits it with the momentum of both a swing and what he built up when running. This made the guardian spark a bit, but then continue to charge its laser, so he hit it again and backed up as it started glowing and fell into the water, then watching it explode from a few feet away. He picked up the few parts that remained, and continued through the shrine.

He comes across a stone platform balancing on a wedge or something, and looked up at the partial stairways above either end. He steps onto the platform and activates Cryonis, moving the square underfoot with the button and turning until "Activate" appeared. When it is activated, the platform rises beneath him, and stops at the perfect height to reach the stairs. He raises his eyebrows a bit, impressed with the precision this shrine was designed with, and steps up, turning to the monk that awaits him. He takes another deep breath before walking up to them, and presses the eye symbol, dissolving the cage-like box of light and watching the fourth orb enter his chest. Seriously, what are these things and what are the for??? And are they doing something that he should be concerned about? He would ask the mummy if they wouldn't immediately have dissolved into a ton of greenish particles. He rolls his eyes at the absurdity of the situation, before blinking and finding himself outside on the platform once more, though now much more snow is falling. He looks up at it all, but is surprised when Rhoam floats down and lands in front of the platform. From Mount Hylia, evidently.

"Great job! You've collected all of the treasures! Now, I'll give you the paraglider- but first, I need to ask you to meet me in a certain spot." Flames started appearing around him, in that same greenish hue, as he kept talking and Astor's eyes widened as he watched. _Oh No._ "Find me at the place where, if you make an X with each shrine, the center is." Rhoam was fading away and Astor stared in horror. "Find me... there...." Astor stared at where his friend just vanished from, in flames the color he's come to associate with death, or at least dead people, and he can't appreciate the snow anymore. _Rhoam... What are you?_ He rubbed his eyes and opened them again, knowing for sure he didn't just see something false. His expression saddened, and he looked toward the sun again. Enough time left to find his friend.... He opened the sheikah slate's map once more, and traced an X with his fingers, seeing the temple of time at the center, and so he teleported to the first shrine he completed. When he reformed, he looked up at the dark, looming shape of the ruined temple far away to his right. He sighs sadly before stepping off the platform, only physically ready for what he's going to encounter there. As he walks, he drags his feet, running ideas on what he might see when he meets Rhoam there. _Is he dead? How long has he been dead? Is he secretly a mummy, or only a spirit? Might he really know what I'm doing up here, despite my doubts?_

Astor looks up at the main tower, only the one at its left still accompanying it. Looking through the door, he only sees a massive statue near the back of the structure. _Rhoam must be up there, then...._ He makes himself walk around the temple, toward the crumbled tower, looking for a way up. He glances along the walls several times as he walks by, distracted and rather scared, before he finds the ladder next to the massive hole in the temple's wall. He climbs up the ladder, reaching the roof and looking up at Rhoam, who's surrounded by the glowing green flames. He stares for a moment before walking to his friend, looking down to watch for holes and to try and not show whatever amount of fear or sadness he might be feeling. He climbs up the ruined roof, and soon up the chunks of stone that once were a wall, reaching the smallish platform Rhoam stood upon. He sighs before looking up at Rhoam, who smiles warmly at the small Hylian once more. "Well done, young one. Now then, the time has come to show you who I truly am. I was King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule. I was... the last leader of Hyrule. A kingdom which no longer exists." He begins to glow brightly as he finishes speaking, and Astor shields his eyes, looking upon his friend once more after a moment. The hooded old hermit was now clad in regal, navy blue and white garments with gold accents, a golden crown now atop his head. Astor's jaw drops as he stares, and Rhoam- King Rhoam- continues. 

"The Great Calamity was merciless... It devastated everything in its path, lo, a century ago." _One hundred years... The beast at the castle...._ "It was then, that my life was taken from me...." King Rhoam looks down as he says this, almost as if remembering it now once again. "And since that time, here I have remained in spirit form." He looks back up at Astor now, who shuts his mouth. "I did not think it wise to overwhelm you with my true identity until you'd shown that you were ready to face the dangerous world of Hyrule, so instead I thought it best to assume a temporary form..." He glances back at the younger man for a moment. "Forgive me." Looking back out at the castle he once called home, he continued. "I think you are now ready to hear the full story of what happened, one hundred years ago, and why you now stand here before me."

"To know Calamity Ganon's true form, one must know the story from an age long past. The Demon King was born into this kingdom, but his transformation into Malice created the horror that you see now. Stories of Ganon were passed from generation to generation in the form of legends and fairy tales... but there was also... a prophecy. ' _The signs of a resurrection of Calamity Ganon are clear, and the power to oppose it lies dormant beneath the ground.'_ We decided to heed the prophecy when proven true, and began excavation across the kingdom. It wasn't long, before we discovered several ancient relics made by the hands of our ancient ancestors. These relics, the Divine Beasts, were giant machines made to be piloted by warriors. We also found the Guardians, an army of mechanical soldiers made to fight autonomously. These discoveries coincided with ancient legends, oft repeated throughout our land. Through researching the legends further, we learned of a princess with a sacred power, and her appointed knight chosen by the sword which seals the darkness." _The voice and light in the castle...?_ "In the ancient legend, it was they who sealed Ganon away using the power of the ancient relics, along with their own. One hundred years ago, there was a princess set to inherit a sacred power, and a skilled knight at her side." _Ah, that's her... but...._ Astor's mind flashed back to his nightmare- the scenes of the princess and her knight, and the feeling of rage that he felt faintly at their memory alone. He made it subside, still not understanding why he felt such rage at them. "It was clear that we must follow our ancestors' path. So we selected four skilled individuals from across Hyrule, and tasked them with the duty of piloting the Divine Beasts. With the princess as their commander, we dubbed these pilots Champions- a name that would solidify their unique bond." Astor remembered the four from his dream- The fish, no, Zora princess, the Rito archer, the Goron warrior...? And the Chief of the Gerudo. Who was the fifth who the Zora princess had cheered on? "The princess, her knight, and the four Champions were on the brink of sealing away Ganon... but nay... Ganon was cunning, and he responded with a plan beyond our imagining. He appeared from deep below Hyrule Castle, seized control of the Guardians and the Divine Beasts, and turned them all against us.... The champions lost their lives, and those residing in the castle as well." He nods once, confirming to Astor that it must have been a Guardian which ended him. "The appointed knight fell while protecting the princess, and thus the kingdom of Hyrule was devastated absolutely by Calamity Ganon."

"However... the princess survived, to face Ganon alone.... That princess was my own daughter, my dear Zelda. When her knight fell, his sword spoke to her, and she was instructed to place you into the Shrine of Resurrection." He turns back to Astor, who looks up at him with a rather forlorn expression. "Despite your past, you are the final hope of Hyrule, Astor. Please, save her, my daughter... She's fought a battle neither of us could comprehend for a whole century...." He looks down once more, for more than a moment or two now. "I know that it's a lot to ask of you, but the sword knew of the power you hold. I heard when Zelda's friends brought you here, that it's been said that you can wield enough power to oppose the calamity, so long as you choose to do so this time...." _This time?_ Rhoam looks back up at his companion of two days. "It took up a lot of my energy to manifest here as I have, so I apologize that I have to leave you so soon. I've got the paraglider and everything for you, and I will give you some guidance." He turns back to the castle and lifts his right arm, pointing toward the strange, split mountain in the distance Astor had noticed a couple times. "Head east- that way you will find a couple villages, Kakariko and Hateno. Impa and Purah should help you get your bearings out there a bit better, and help guide you better. You will also need to find Robbie, he has the last piece of that strange orb they said they were going to split up." He looks back at Astor, starting to fade away once more. "Good luck... Astor...." Left in his place are the paraglider and the bag he'd had in his disguise. Astor, overwhelmed, sits down. It's close to sunset now.

Rhoam, invisible to Astor, realizes something. _Damn, they didn't want him to know about the orb, did they?_


	9. Chapter 8: Interlude!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did you know? That wasn't Astor and Rhoam's first meeting!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man astor was a weird kid lmao, also referencing Exile//Vilify because me and silverjirachi ship the church husbands and I had them look over the chapter to make sure they were in character enough; also some introduction :)

Astor lived a simple life in Mabe Village. Help around the house, water the garden, warn the neighbors about the impending coyote attacks, sometimes cook food if he was old enough.

He would have been almost normal if not for the visions. They started around when he was seven or so. He was a bit of an antisocial recluse when he didn't have to go outside, too, but he was a well-mannered young man, and never lied. This was why after the first warning, that Cindi and her wife were overwatering their garden, they took him seriously. The wilting flowers certainly weren't going to yield tomatoes, but that raised questions. "What does the boy do in his house all day, watch his neighbors?" It was asked in a lighthearted tone by Berusa, Cindi's wife, when talking with Astor's father. He laughed a bit before he responded, "I don't think so, I always see him reading or playing with some of my stuff." Azelphir was a bit of a recluse as well, but far less so- still a lot by his husband's standards though. That's why he was outside when Berusa caught him. "Oh! You do divination and whatnot, don't you? Is that what he plays with, aren't those things fragile?" Azelphir looked down thoughtfully. "He really likes the crystals. Some are, but I made sure to teach him how to be careful with them." Berusa nods, more curious than suspicious now of his son's activities.

"You think he's teaching himself divination?" 

Azelphir laughed a little- only a little, he's seen that the sound of it unsettles most people. "Maybe! It's not usually so specific though." Azelphir decides he'll talk to his little seven year old when he heads back inside.

A bit later, he finds the boy arranging several crystals on the living room rug, making a circle around Azelphir's quartz crystal ball. He goes and sits almost across from Astor, who was so focused on his activity that he only realized his dad was back when the man sat down. Astor doesn't look away from the crystals. "Hi dad!" “What’re you doing there?” “Organizing them…” Astor rotates one of the citrine points so its tip is aimed more at some chevron amethyst.

“What’re you organizing them for?” “They’re gonna help!” “Oh? How?” Astor changes his position from kneeling over the ensemble to sitting with his legs crossed. “Hmm… I dunno. They helped keep the tomatoes alive- Miss Cindi stopped watering them so much right?” Azelphir smiled and gave a small laugh. “She did, you haven’t got to worry.” “Oh, good. I wanna make sure the cows are gonna be safe now, I saw some big, bad dogs in the ball and they wanted the cows.” Astor looked into the crystal ball, and Azelphir raised his eyebrows a bit. He has all of these crystals and such because he got visions starting in his childhood, and he suspects Astor must have inherited this ability.

Azelphir waits for Astor to conclude his scrying before saying anything else, and after a little bit Astor looks up at his father. “We gotta put the cows in the barn tonight.” His expression was blank but his tone quivered a bit with fear and concern. Azelphir tilts his head a bit, almost mirroring his son’s expression except for the surprise shown by his eyebrows, and he stands up. “Alright Astor, I’ll go tell Thelem. You want to come too?” Astor stands up, ready to follow. “Mhm… I wanna say hi to them too.” Azelphir smiles a bit and ruffles Astor’s hair before heading back to the front door.

They wave at Cindi and Berusa as they head toward the ranch, reminding the women of a mother duck and a duckling but if the duckling was just a small version of the duck. They walk through the small village, seeing other neighbors. They both wave to be polite, Azelphir hoping to avoid anymore conversations for today. Astor watches some other kids playing tag on the other side of the ranch for a moment when they reach it, but runs toward his other father when he spots him.

“Papa!!” Thelem catches the little guy in a hug, and laughs before letting go and ruffling his hair. “What’s with the early visit, you two?” He looks from Astor to Azelphir, smiling warmly at them both. “Papa! We gotta put the cows in the barn now.” “Oh? Why’s that?” Thelem had forgotten about the previous warning, and doesn’t quite get what his little boy’s talking about. “Cuz there’s gonna be big bad dogs tonight, I don’t want them to get the cows!” Astor’s tone didn’t sound frantic or anything- of course, the sun will still be up for half an hour- but more like a child who still has to grasp the concept of acceptable volumes. Some of the other Mabe residents overhear, and look over at the group as Thelem humors his son.

“I see, do you want to help me put them all in?” Astor smiles and jumps up and down, this time intentionally yelling “Yes!” Azelphir follows them back into the fenced pasture to talk to his husband. “Honey, I believe he’s inherited my ability to receive and understand visions. He was already correct about the tomato plants, I’m interested in seeing the accuracy of this one.” “Oh, that’s great! You’ll be a wonderful teacher to him, dear.” Thelem smiles, and Azelphir smiles back at him. That unsettles most people too, but not Thelem, and that’s what matters. They grab each others’ hands and watch their son trying to push one of the cows to the gate.

“Come onnn, you have to go in Bessie!” The cow moos calmly as though in response. “Don’t sass me young lady!” The two men laugh at the phrase Astor clearly picked up from watching Thelem do this many times before. “Astor, you have to lead her in with food!” Thelem called out as he and Azelphir approached, Astor looking up while still trying to push the cow. “No time for food!” Azelphir’s expression changed to concern. “Hey, are you sure? What time does it look like the wolves come?” Astor stops bugging the cow to stand up straight and close his eyes, thinking and trying to remember. “Um… Not too much later.” He points at the kids playing tag while looking up at his dads. “They stop playing, it gets dark but not fully, and then the cows aren’t safe….” He looks concerned now, and Thelem puts a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it’ll be okay, we’ll get them in.” Astor looks down and nods. “Yeah….”

Thelem shows Astor how to get the cows to follow him, and they lead the whole herd inside together. As they close the barn doors, Astor looks over and sees the kids still playing. “Great! We saved time.” Thelem ruffles Astor’s hair again and laughs, “We did! We ought to head home and have dinner, huh?” Astor laughs too. “Yeah!” As they walk past one of the larger buildings, one of the neighbors who overheard stops them- He’s a Sheikah, named Tal. “Hey, uh, what was that about wolves?” Azelphir dreaded the extra interaction and Astor hid behind Thelem, who responded. “Oh! My husband and son have visions and my boy foresaw wolves.” Tal nods thoughtfully, before responding with “Alright. I was considering hunting them if they come by, would you want a free wolfskin?” “Sure! I need to make a new coat for Astor anyway, he’s growing so fast!” Thelem laughs as he puts an arm around the tiny little guy, smiling at him too.

“Alright! I’ll get back to you on that later then. Have a good night!” “You too,” Thelem responded cheerfully, Astor responded quietly and Azelphir muttered with a nod. 

The next day, as Thelem made his way to the barn in the morning, he noticed large pawprints in the dirt road around the pasture. After letting the cows back out, Tal waved at him from the porch he’d stopped the family at the night before, so Thelem left the pasture and headed over. “You won’t believe it! Or maybe you will, but it’s like, insane! A small pack of wolves came through last night!!” Thelem’s eyes widened in surprise and excitement. “Really? Magnificent! How many did you get?” “Three,” The Sheikah said excitedly, “Good thing he saw them coming, huh?” “Definitely,” Thelem agreed, “The animals are all safe and we’ve got wolfskins out of it.”

After the more publicly addressed vision, more residents came to know about Astor’s visions. All of them were accurate, often more so than Azelphir’s. He could not be prouder of his son, and helped him hone his skills as much as possible. Some days when he’d reached his early teens, he would offer readings in the local cafe, after learning other forms of divination aside from just scrying. He tried to scry in there with the crystal ball but the sun would come in through the windows in evenings. The burn spot on the wall was since painted over, thankfully the owners weren’t too upset cuz he helped them bring in business, but he wouldn’t forget where to look to see the slightly off-color paint for at least a century.

He was heard of as far as castle town even, though it only made sense as it was so close to Mabe. The shop and restaurant owners of Mabe got extra business from him even on the weeks or months he wasn’t reading, as he was thought of as a sort of attraction by most who weren’t local residents. People would come from as far as Hateno for a chance to see the weird kid who knows the future, because he did a reading for one traveling merchant from Castle Town and that guy goes everywhere apparently. 

Astor became more reclusive leading up to his biggest prophecy, he liked all the excessive attention as much as Azelphir liked extra conversations. He wishes he’d not yelled about the wolves, thinking about it made him think he must have been a stupid kid. Who wouldn’t get the simple concept of acceptable volume? Well, him, apparently until he was about eight.

Azelphir and Thelem started to worry when he would stake out in his room for days at a time, only seeing him when he needed to come out for some necessity or another. They discussed it when they noticed the dark rings under his eyes, and decided they had to talk to him about whatever he’s doing, so they caught him while he was out and sat their now 14 year old down in the living room. Poor kid seemed nervous when Azelphir said they both wanted to talk to him.

“It’s alright, Astor, you aren’t in any trouble. We’re just worried that you aren’t getting enough sleep, and about how you seem to be isolating yourself a lot lately. What’s wrong?” Thelem asked the boy, who looked down and frowned. He couldn’t tell them everything…. “The Calamity’s coming,” he muttered. “What? Sorry, you were so quiet….” “The calamity’s coming, dads. I’m... scared.” His parents look at him with shock and horror. He didn’t want them to be afraid so soon. “You’re sure? When is it going to happen?” Azelphir reaches out to his son, who takes his hand in both of his. Mildly calmer, Astor nods. “We have some years, but the visions keep happening….” “And the grounding exercises won’t keep them at bay?” Astor shakes his head. Thelem tears up, he can’t bear to see anyone he loves so distressed. “I’ll try to help you manage them, okay?” Azelphir closes his hand around his son’s. “We’ll see what to do in the meantime until the calamity happens, okay?”

“I need to tell the king.” Astor doesn’t look up as he continues, sounding tired. “I have to… I have to tell the king. If he doesn’t hear it we will all certainly perish.” His dads look at each other, concerned, before Thelem looks back at their son. “We’ll see what can be done, alright?” Astor tilts his head up a little and smiles a tiny bit, still looking very tired. “Thank you….” They all eat dinner together, Astor not taking his food to his room for the first time in nearly two weeks. He wishes he’d spent each night with them as the day approaches.

Thelem sent a letter to the king about his son requesting an audience with him, to discuss important news, but a few days later they receive a letter saying that they don’t need to meet with the boy as “We have a royal seer, he would tell us of anything important.” Astor expressed his frustration at the response when he was home alone, screaming into a pillow. He needs to deliver the prophecy Soon or else Ganon will only pester him further. He wishes the strange dreams had only stayed dreams, and not bled into excessive visions. He wishes the strange dreams wouldn’t leave him waking up exhausted. He wishes that he could tell his parents everything now, if only there could be a cure for what plagues him.

Then he is given three days with no nightmares. No visions. No Ganon, except for one thing; “You have to tell him in three days,” Told to him by the demon king at the end of his final nightmare before the three days. “Tell him your prophecy, or you will be brought to ruin far sooner than Hyrule itself. Ruin, or power? Which will you choose, seer?” He remembers this as he walks into castle town on the third day, cloaked in plain robes to avoid attention.

His fathers were out together today, so he could slip out the back door and out of town completely unnoticed. He walked through the busy streets of castle town, winding around crowds and lines until he reached the fountain. He looks up at the gates of the immense castle, remembering this scene from many of the same vision. Right on time. He walks up to the gates, the two knights pointing their halberds at him. “Halt!” The guard to his right was closer, so he looked at them. “I merely need to meet with the king. It is _urgent._ ” The guards look at each other, the left one mentioning that she thinks he’s ‘that seer kid from Mabe,’ and after a bit of talking between them they reluctantly bring him in. 

They follow him as he walks up the outer path to the left, already knowing far too well where to go. He’s surprisingly fast, they have to keep catching up and he won’t stop. He goes through each gatehouse, the guards there hardly having time to even ask “Who are you?” or “What are you doing here?” Before he’s left, the two guards from the front gates speedwalking after him. The replacement guard at the front hopes he won’t get in trouble for the other two rookies letting that weird kid in and leaving their posts.

When Astor walks into the Sanctum, he and the king lock eyes. The king has no idea who this punk ass kid is, trespassing and now making eye contact with him, so he decides to address the issue. “What are you doing in here?!” Astor doesn’t miss a beat when responding, “You declined my request, but you need to know. The signs of a resurrection of the Calamity are clear, and the signs to oppose it lie dormant beneath the ground!” The king looks down at this child in disgust, the utter audacity this kid has to do this. Three days after his wife has perished, unable to have even begun teaching little Zelda about her sacred power, this kid just breaks through the gate and starts yelling about Calamity Ganon?!

“Leave this place, child! Right now!!” “Hold on,” Astor holds up one finger and puts a hand in his pocket. “I am so sorry about your loss but this is the best consolation gift I have, again, I’m sorry.” He pulls a Hightail Lizard out and kneels before the king, holding it up as though offering it. The lizard has no idea where it is and scrambles out of the young seer’s hands, and he just watches as it starts running around the room, the two rookies trying to catch it. He stands back up, turns to the door and just leaves.

The boy’s words stick in Rhoam’s mind as he watches the cloaked figure leave through the front gates. He will have to consult the royal seer, if it was true then this wouldn’t be good. The future prophet of doom returns to his home, and starts packing things into a bag used mostly for vacations while his fathers are still away. Ganon pushes the fear of arrest even more in his mind, and Astor only hopes that he’ll be able to slip away in the night.

He writes a parting note and tucks it under his bed with the bag, and waits for his fathers to return. He is so close to crying, but mustn’t until he is away from here, and safe. Safe from arrest and safe from Ganon’s threats. When the two men return, they all spend time together and Astor eats dinner with them one last time. He hugs them both before they all head to bed, and after about an hour he pulls the bag and note out. He places the note on his pillow and opens his window quietly, stepping out onto one of the decorative rocks in the backyard. He reaches up and closes the window before stepping onto the grass and beginning his hike to the southwest. He was told of a sort of haven for those connected to Calamity Ganon, though he would still be an outlier. He wasn’t connected by choice- or, by his choice. Ganon chose him, and said he was supposed to be grateful.

In the morning, Thelem knocks on his son’s door a couple times, before opening it to find the room empty. He panics as he picks up the note.

Dear dad and dad,

I am sorry about this. I have to leave, it is part of my visions. I couldn’t tell you because you would have stopped me and the visions showed it wasn’t going to end well like that. Please move to Lurelin, Lurelin will be safe when the calamity happens. I don’t know why but you need to be safe and I know you love it at Lurelin. Thank you for being my dads, I couldn’t have had better parents if i hand picked them.

I love you both,

Astor

Thelem and Azelphir both cried. Astor slept in some longer grass under a tree, tired from hiking all night. It’s his fifteenth birthday. He would likely think this is the worst birthday anyone could have had if he were awake and remembered what day it is.


	10. Chapter 9: Beyond the Great Plateau

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hes free

Astor watches the sunset for a short while from the derelict tower. It was too easy to see, as the walls only partially remained, but something about the sight helped him relax after… well, everything he’s been through. It’s only the end of the second day and he’s already exhausted,  _ really looking forward to the rest of this quest. _ He sighs, and shields his eyes when the sun peeks out from under a cloud.

He glances down at the bag and the paraglider. Curious, he scoots over to the bag to inspect it- it looks awfully bulky- and he opens it to find a surprisingly large amount of items. A waterskin, already full, a few toasted Hylian Shrooms- four, they must be the ones he offered at the fire yesterday morning- five raw apples, a bundle of red-tipped, oddly shaped arrows, the hunting knife and its sheath, Rhoam’s booklet of recipes, and a small ball of leather cord. He opens the booklet and finds it full of more than just the meat and fish recipe he’d helped with, including some sketches of plants and mushrooms that are edible with notes on them. Whether or not they need to be cooked, what properties they have when cooked right, where they might be commonly found; Astor wonders if this was all written in preparation for his awakening. He flips through to find more meal recipes as well as recipes for elixirs. He sees a picture of a little red lizard next to a blue elixir and a blue one next to a red elixir, and wonders if they were colored incorrectly. He brushes his hair out of his face when he changes his position, before getting an idea.

He sets the booklet down and reaches into Rhoam’s bag to grab the leather cord and unwinds some of it. He has it loosely woven between the fingers of his left hand, and tugs on it a couple times to test it before grabbing the hunting knife. Holding it taut, one end between his teeth now and the rest of the bundle in his left hand, he cuts off about a foot of it. Re-sheathing the knife and replacing it in the bag with the remaining cord, he then takes off his gloves and pulls his hair back behind his head.

A few strands manage to escape as he readjusts his grip, stubbornly moving back in front of his eyes, before he decides to just tuck those behind his ears and then continue. His hair was long enough for this to work, as long as he can tie the string tightly enough; he holds his hair and one end of the cord in one hand as he wraps the other end around it a few times, pulling it tighter and then fumbling for a bit trying to tie it all. He starts to get a bit frustrated as it finally seems like it will stay, and he holds his hands up for a moment as though he could will it to stay up. After a few moments he relaxes, and looks out once more to see the twilight fading to night, looking down in front of the temple to see some skeletal monsters digging themselves out of the ground.

He watches them in shock, recognizing them from his nightmare. He hadn’t thought undead monsters were actually  _ real. _ He decides to camp up here tonight, retracting back into the hopefully safe tower. He looks up at the Sheikah tower, considering teleporting up where monsters definitely can’t reach him, but sees that there really isn’t a roof up there and decides that yes, he will in fact stay right here. He tucks his little bag and gloves into the larger one, takes off the weapons and shield, and tries to use the big bag as a sort of pillow. Unfortunately, as thick as the lining looks, it isn’t soft at all, so he brushes some rubble away from himself before laying flat next to the bag.

He looks up at the sky, watching wispy clouds drift along a breeze somewhere far above him as stars appear. Uncomfortable as he may be, he’s tired, and he starts to drift off to sleep, his last coherent thoughts hoping to sleep without another nightmare.

Alas, he cannot control his dreams, and after sleep has a hold on him he finds himself in some place with rock walls, rock ceilings, and dusty rock floors.

He knew this place better than he’d like to, looking up at the excessively large tapestries covering Gerudo-made statues. They were quite tacky and worked poorly if they were meant to hide the three entrances to this place, all one had to do was look behind one, or two, or maybe even three before they found an entrance. He walks up a short set of stairs and pulls the massive red and white tapestry aside, entering through the middle entrance. 

He could hear the sounds of Yiga members whooping and hollering ahead, messing around by the indoor pit. He cringes as he approaches, they’re all so loud he can’t believe they haven’t made themselves deaf. Or maybe they had, and that’s why they yell. He glares at the group of rowdy footsoldiers as he skirts around the room, biting his tongue lightly to avoid shouting at them to get them to be quiet. He was basically still a guest here, sure, but they’ve been on his nerves for years already. He thinks it’s a feat of great strength to not have snapped and just obliterated the whole place for just a possibility of peace and quiet while in here.

He continues onward, soon finding a spot where part of the carved wall stuck out just a  _ tiny _ bit, and starts feeling along the edge for the buttons. For a moment he feels like he’s only watching himself, and wonders what the hell he’s doing, until the wall slides to the left and reveals a dimly lit room- right. He was finding the room he claimed as his own in this labyrinthine mess of a place. Stepping into it, he pulls it back into place with the handle that’s inside, and sits on a chest that’s in front of a rather large bed. He holds his head in his hands and groans, thinking for a moment that maybe those rowdy imbeciles down the hall would be able to hear him. He thinks they SHOULD hear him, he’s disappointed as hell.

He was dragged along to watch the leader and his large sidekick, as well as a handful of other members, try to show off by picking a fight with a molduga. They didn’t fare too poorly against it really, but he was disappointed that not even the largest monster in the land could slap any sense of responsibility into these banana fueled  _ animals _ even if it sent them flying across the desert with its massive tail. The only non-disappointing part of the whole display was when most of the yiga got launched not once but TWICE by the thing, before it burrowed deeper into the sand and left. Astor rubs his temples and wishes it would have taken Kohga with it, at least Sooga seems to get the importance of serving ganon instead of just screwing around all day and all night. At least, he got it best when he wasn’t holding Kohga’s hand and basically doing all the thinking for him.

Astor lays back, looking at the carved-out ceiling and wonders how Sooga can keep his cool so well.  _ He’s been raised here, hasn’t he? He’s had to deal with this for so many more years…. _ Well, probably not the feelings and thoughts of nagging Ganon sends to Astor to try and get these clowns to do  _ anything _ worthwhile. But Astor has had to deal with that long enough, that basically doesn’t count at this point. He stares up at the ceiling and sarcastically, mentally wishes that it would collapse on him, before remembering that Ganon wouldn’t let him die even if all hope is lost on getting any use out of his minions.  _ Well, any use from them doing anything, at least…. _

He reflects on when he first experimented with semi-sentient malice, and how draining it was for him. How he was sent out with a rookie Yiga grunt into the Gerudo Highlands, “for his protection” they said. He smirks a bit, recalling how easy it was to make it look like the lynel up there had ended them, as though he couldn’t have made a copy of the lynel using the rookie grunt’s soul. How easy it was to convince everyone that he was so very grateful that they saved him from the lynel. The lynel which only outlasted the copy fueled by their soul long enough for Astor to end it himself. That was certainly a good use for these useless Sheikah defects. 

He hears the sound of talking outside his room, it sounds like Kohga finally returned from his flight across the desert. Yes, it’s technically “Master Kohga,” but he was no master to Astor. So no need for the title unless Kohga decided to be whiny about it. He hears the man pound on his ‘door.’

“Hey, Prophecy Man! You in there, or did the molduga eat ya?!”

Astor rolled his eyes and groaned, getting up to open the wall so he wouldn’t have to yell fifteen times or something again. The walls didn’t even muffle his voice THAT MUCH, apparently the Yiga have a tradition of deafening themselves with their own yelling. He opens the wall and glares up at the tall, lanky yet fat man who leads the clan. “Yes.”

Kohga tilts his head at the seer, possibly concerned but lacking any indicative expression thanks to the mask. “What’s wrong, the sun burn you or something? You just left.”

“I’m tired.” He really is. Tired of all this bullshit, but also tired because the Yiga love to run around the halls at night, still yelling.

“Oh, alright. Next time say something, will ya? Can’t have our prized seer getting eaten by moldugas!”

“... Sure.” He slides the door shut as Kohga tries to tell him to have a good nap. He hears a muffled “Jeez, what’s his deal, Sooga?” and then “You know he always is like this.” and then a somewhat sad “Yeah…” before he hears them continue whatever conversation they’d had going on, and the sound fade away as they continue onward. 

Astor flops back onto his bed and groans again. How frustrating these self proclaimed assassins could be….

Astor wakes up with a start, sitting up and now groaning again and rubbing his left shoulder. Apparently he’d rolled to his side while asleep, right onto his shoulder. He stretches his arm out and moves it in circles till it feels like it probably won’t bother him, and pulls the Sheikah Slate out to check the time.

5:47 am.  _ Might as well get up, huh?  _ He looks at the sky, which is glowing with soft yet bright sunlight. He makes sure everything’s all packed up, the sword at his side, bow and shield at his back, and two of the red-tipped arrows in his quiver with the normal ones, before slinging his new bag over his shoulder and teleporting up to the tower. He scans the scenery again, looking to the split mountain and then tracing a path to it as he looks at the ground leading to it. Another tower, a bridge, ruined buildings… but no monsters he can really see. After a bit more contemplation, he decides to just see how far the paraglider will take him along that path. He can scavenge whatever may lie within the ruins later.

He pulls out the glider, hoping it can actually carry the weight of him and his bag, he unfolds it. He looks out over the drop, and decides to open his Sheikah Slate to the map and select the tower preemptively. Making sure he can hold onto the paraglider well enough with the slate on his hand, he decides he can hold onto it adequately enough when he can wrap his hand around the handle. He closes his eyes and takes some deep breaths, praying to any god or goddess who can listen that he won’t plummet faster than he could teleport back, and he opens his eyes once more before running and jumping off the edge, screaming.

He keeps screaming for a few moments, thinking he’s falling too fast, before he realizes that it is, in fact, carrying him. He would tighten his grip on it if he wasn’t already clinging on for dear life, and he watches the scenery move past as he approaches a midway point in the ruins. Apparently he expected it to take him further, and he looks for a place to land. Wind starts to move him to the right, so he kicks his legs a bit to try and steer the glider to keep it straight, but he ends up landing in some tall grass next to a ruined building. He saw the glowing red eyes on the silhouette of another blue bokoblin through the ceilingless building, and knowing it probably saw him too he starts running after landing, folding the paraglider and shoving it back into the bag as he goes.

About halfway to a massive flagpole, he sees another silhouette in the distance beyond, but this one was much larger. He freezes, hoping that thing can’t see him from here, and turns to the right a little and keeps running- though he’s doing more of a jog to try and preserve any energy while still getting the hell out of here. He glances at a sign that points to the left with “Dueling Peaks, Hateno Village” above a similar one pointing to the right with “Lake Hylia” written on them, and keeps going toward the split mountain-  _ So that must be what it’s called. Dueling Peaks, makes sense. _ Looking ahead again he sees another one of those massive creatures, picking something up from the ground and sniffing it, so he ducks behind a pile of bricks- no, a broken piece of wall. He leans back against it and tries to catch his breath, soon peeking out and seeing that the thing thankfully hadn’t noticed him. Sighing with relief, he leans back again,, looking up the hill that’s now in front of him and seeing part of a weird stone tower at the top. He wonders what that could be for half a moment before getting up, still breathing rather heavily, and deciding to sneak by. He peeks out again and sees that the lanky monster walked  _ away _ from him, so now a broken-down cart is obscuring his view of it. He stays crouched, moving along the crumbling wall and glancing across the area while mostly keeping an eye on the monster. Soon, he runs and hides behind a broken tower, looking to the next one to find it’s farther than he thought.  _ Uh oh. _

He peeks around the farther end of his tower to see the apparently elongated red bokoblin walk behind another crumbling tower, starting to take a step to run to the next one. As he kicks off the ground to run, he sees its nose emerge from behind the tower it had been behind, now kicking the ground with his other foot to get back into the tower’s shadow before it could look over. He falls onto his back, thinking  _ thankfully I didn’t put the sword or arrows in my bag or they’d probably have torn through it, _ before he remembers-  _ My arrows!! _

Pulling out his traveler’s bow and getting back up, he nocks an arrow and shoots it, watching it land behind the tall red monster. Its ears perk up, and it turns to see what hit the ground. As it inspects the arrow, Astor runs to the other tower, grabbing the corner nearest to him to stop himself from going too far. He sees a large rock outcrop ahead now, and looks around for any more bokoblins, elongated or normal. Seeing none aside from the one he hopes he left behind, he crouches and stays low to the grass, hoping that if anything tries to spot him he’ll be hidden enough by it, and makes his way to the large chunk of rock.

The lanky monster walks parallel to him for a bit, prompting the man to duck lower and instead actually crawl through the grass, until it walks away back into the ruined building across from him. He crawls the rest of the way to the rock, looks up when he’s almost there, and runs the last meter or two behind it. He can feel his own heart beating and he’s not sure if it’s from the fear, exhaustion, or both, and then he feels a droplet of water land on his nose. Confused, he looks up to find that clouds have covered the sky. He hadn’t noticed because it at least was clear where the sun had risen, but after a bit of catching his breath he realizes it’s beginning to do more than just sprinkle. 

He hopes that it’ll help him, either by obscuring any noise he’d make or make it harder to be seen, but still doesn’t like that it decided to rain so shortly after he’s left the plateau where he knew of many shelters to wait out the rain in. He sighs lightly, pulling some of the unruly strands of hair that refused to be restrained behind his ears, and continues sneaking along the edge of the rocky hill. He hears a snort and realizes he’s only a few meters behind a bokoblin, now sneaking a little more carefully to get past. He watches it until he reaches a small incline, now going up to find  _ a FIFTH shrine?!  _ He looks over the grass to scan the area, spotting no monsters amongst the rocks and grassy patches, so he runs to this new shrine, watching it open. He steps inside and rides the elevator down, hoping that this shrine had no monsters or baby guardians waiting for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Secret fun fact: I play through each thing I make him do in the game to make sure it makes sense. You'll be able to do a whole playthrough based on this if you want, though some things are added here and there and you'd want to collect more items lmao


	11. Chapter 10: To Dueling Peaks Stable!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astor activates another tower, does another shrine, and obtains some money

When the elevator stops, Astor looks up to inspect the shrine ahead. He doesn’t see a guidance stone, which surprises him.  _ Where am I supposed to get the rune in the last box? _ He looks around, making sure he didn’t miss it, but he sees no such guidance stone. Only multiple sets of stairs and a fan atop the set to the left. Looking across from it, he sees a glowing chest, so he walks up and uses the fan’s power to reach the chest. He opens it, looks in, sighs disappointedly, and reaches in and picks up another chunk of amber before hopping off the ledge and continuing through the shrine.

He walks up the stairs and finds more fans, one blowing toward him and the other blowing away, up a set of stairs to his left. He walks up, steps onto the little platform before the drop, and runs and jumps to glide across, looking down into the shrine’s abyss as he goes. He reaches the other platform in just a few moments, but still stops to catch his breath. He doesn’t like being suspended above a dark abyss  _ at all. _ He walks up onto the next small platform, seeing another glowing chest ahead, so he glides to the platform in front of the imprisoned monk and then glides down to the ledge with the chest.

Opening it, his eyes widen when he sees a  _ massive _ sword. It only barely fits in the chest! He tries to lift it but it’s really hard with his scrawny little arms, and the weight might be too much for the paraglider. However, he still tries to lift it, refusing for a few moments that he’s too weak to lift it, before dropping it and leaning against the chest. He exhales, and then breathes heavily. He regrets whatever past he had that resulted in him being so physically weak, how is he even supposed to defeat that flying thing at the castle? Well, that will have to be figured out. He sighs and stands back up, slamming the chest shut out of frustration. He turns around, huffing, and gliding down to the little platform below.

He walks back up and glides back to the end of the shrine, receiving a fifth Spirit Orb and realizing that Rhoam never took the four orbs nor told him what to do with them. He still mulls the thought over as he reappears outside, wondering what they do. Clearly enough just the five didn’t make him stronger, he wouldn’t have been able to lift that sword before he got any of them either.

He looks up now to find the sky clear and the sun much higher, wondering once again if time passes differently in the shrines. He turns to the right and hikes over a smaller rock outcrop, finding the start of the bridge, and does a little jog down to get to it. He looks at it, hoping it’s still stable, when he sees another person near the end-  _ There are PEOPLE down here?! Well, makes sense, I have to find the villages. _ He approaches the other Hylian, seeing him looking off the edge at something. Curious, he looks over too, not really seeing anything of note when he hears the other man mutter something. Astor turns to look at him.

“Huh?”

“The end is near,” the other man repeats, before continuing with “I may be used to seeing bad omens by now, but that… Well, that’s badder than most.” And turning to Astor, suddenly seeming startled by the other man. “We’re doomed! I mean, don’t panic! Sorry, have we met?”

Astor hesitates for a moment, also startled, before answering. “Uh, no? I’m Astor.”

“Brigo,” The man nods, “You’ve come at a good time, I got tired of talking to myself. You see those weird things that popped out of the ground?”

“Yeah, I was on one when it, er, popped out.”

“Wow…” Brigo seemed impressed that Astor survived the encounter with the tower. “You see how the shrines started glowing too-” Brigo cut himself off as he looked at the shrine Astor had exited from. “Whoa!! That one’s different now!”

“Yeah I went in there, they glow more when they get activated.”

Brigo looks at Astor with awe. “You just  _ went in there??? _ ”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Astor shrugs. “Honestly not even that like, interesting in them. That one was just filled with fans and a really heavy sword.”

“That’s so cool though! They’ve been untouched for at least a century, I’ve heard they were made like several thousand years ago too! But that’s just what my grandma said and she liked to make things up.”

Astor nods, eyes having widened at the shrines being made possibly several thousand years ago.

“Anyway, I’ve interpreted these strange happenings as the signs that the end is near!”

Astor looks over the river at the castle, with the immense dark cloud surrounding it. The cloud he watched form from the tower-  _ better not tell him about that, I guess. _ “Fair enough, pretty weird with all that happening all of a sudden huh?”

“Yeah! And I’ve been keeping an eye on that thing,” Brigo points to the guardian across the river, “You never know if it’ll just get up and start walking around again, y’know? One even chased me and tried to kill me!”

Astor tilts his head, looking at the very dead guardian. “That one?”

Brigo shakes his head. “No, it was a different one- closer to the castle but before the forest. When they spot you they shoot blue beams of light at you!”

Astor nods again, recalling his too-close encounter with the one on the great plateau. Brigo continues, “I was so sure it was the end, I was so, so lucky to escape into the woods. I hear a lot of them still wander around the castle, so be careful out there, okay?”

“I will, you too.” Astor hesitates, but decides to ask Brigo a question or two. “Hey, uh, Kakariko and Hateno are down this road, right?”

“Oh? Yeah, but it’ll take at least a day to get to either. Hateno’s farther too, actually, so you’ll want to stay at the stable or get a horse before heading out.” Astor nods contemplatively before responding.

“Alright, thank you. See you around.” He waves a little and heads off, as Brigo waves back and wonders if that super pale dude’s gonna be okay in the sunlight. There’s like no way that dude won’t be sunburnt by the time he reaches the stable unless he’s already applied some sunproof or fireproof elixir or something.

Astor walks down the steps at the end of the bridge, eyeing the deactivated guardian ahead a bit warily. He walks past it and continues, content that it seems to be deactivated too, and eyes the path ahead. He sees a small forest, which the path or road apparently goes through, and looks at different things as he approaches the forest. The tower and Dueling Peaks are much closer, and he sees a massive, broken structure of some sort ahead to his right.  _ What is that? A tree??? That thing’s immense…. _

He decides to examine the dead tree, looking up through the tunnel it creates when he gets to the opening. He opens his mouth a little in awe, looking around the wooden walls. “Wow…” He walks up into the opening, seeing a weird yellow flower not too far from a Stamella shroom. The sight of it makes him realize he hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, or even dinner the previous night! He goes to grab the mushroom, accidentally touching the flower. It vanishes in a puff of glittery sparkles, and he spots the yellow flower that appears with the same sparkles ahead. Fearing that it’s a trap of some sort, he sneaks up to the Stamella shroom, grabs it, and runs away. Reaching the path again, he continues to the Peaks, looking up the hill at the fallen tree. It’s much bigger than he thought, it can definitely hide some sort of trap or ambush. A couple minutes later, he reaches the edge of the forest.

He walks through, enjoying the scenery, until he spots a fire. He sees the cooking pot next to it too, and decides to approach, not having noticed the Hylian sitting next to it. When he gets close enough, the Hylian who was obscured by a bush hears his footsteps.

“Who’s there?”

“What-?!” Astor jumps, and walks forward a little more to see the other man who’d been accidentally hiding behind the bush.

“Whoa, are you a ghost?” Astor raises an eyebrow at the question. “Uh, no…?”

The man shrugs. “Works for me, why don’t you grab a seat by the fire? I’m Giro.”

Astor sits down. “I’m Astor.”

Giro smiles. “Nice to meet ya! I’m also a traveling merchant, you got anything you wanna sell?”

“Nice to meet you as well, and, uh... “ Astor fishes the two pieces of amber from his bag. “I have these.”

“Amber, and two of them! Wow, alright. That’ll come out to sixty rupees! That work?”

“Yes, sounds about right.” Astor waits for Giro to get out the appropriate amount of rupees, and hands over the two amber pieces to receive three red rupees.

“Er… Sorry if this sounds stupid, but these are equal to sixty, yes?” 

“Oh? Haha, yeah! All rupees are the same size, but each color is different. The red ones are twenty each!”

Astor nods. “Thank you, uh, how many colors are there? Forgive me, I’m forgetful.”

“Oh, it’s fine!” Giro’s kindness reminds Astor of Rhoam. “Green ones are just one, blue ones are five, there’s the red ones, purple ones are fifty, silver ones are a hundred, and gold ones are three hundred! I’ve heard there’s also yellow ones that are ten rupees, but I haven’t seen those, or anything better than purple rupees.”

Astor listens intently, and smiles a little when Giro finishes speaking. “I see, thank you. Might I use the fire to bake some apples? I’ve got enough to share if you want any.”

“Sure, and thanks! How many have ya got?”

“Five, I think.”

“I’ll have one, thank you.”

Astor sets three apples next to the fire and watches them, hoping he won’t let any of them burn on accident. After they appear sufficiently cooked, he grabs his two and hands Giro the third, so they both eat together. Astor puts his rupees into a smaller, empty pocket of his bag, and after he’s finished eating he stands up.

“Leaving already? Well, be safe out there, Astor!”

“Thanks, um, you too, Giro.” They wave at each other as Astor leaves. When he gets around the massive rock sticking out of the ground, he pulls out his toasted Hylian shrooms and eats two of them- they kind of suck when they’re not fresh and warm, but this will hopefully make up for the dinner he missed- and continues onward, exiting the forest. There are a few clusters of trees around the path ahead, but far enough that they were clearly not part of the forest.

As he reaches a curve that points almost directly at the tower, a Chuchu falls out of a tree, almost hitting him. Barely missing a beat, he pulls out his sword and hits it, shielding his face as it bursts. He wipes the smaller splatters off himself as best he can, and reaches down to pick up the small ball of coagulated blue jelly. It doesn’t really stick to his hand, which confuses him, but he shrugs and decides to put it in the pocket he decided was for monster parts. He watches the bokoblin heart or whatever pulsate for a few moments in disgust before placing the jelly next to it. He hopes they won’t interact and make like, a small abomination or something. Closing his bag, he approaches a sign near the shore of the river.

“Left, Proxim Bridge, Right, Dueling Peaks…” Well, that wasn’t very helpful. He walks up the rock outcrop on the shore, looking at the expansive river between him and the tower. Thankfully, he has Cryonis, so he makes an ice block ahead and glides to it, climbing up. He makes a couple more to reach the nearest rock, off to his right. Looking at the river again, he sees a weirdly placed plant in the middle of the water. Squinting, he notices a round shape below it, and wonders what the hell he’s looking at. He aims the crosshairs at the “plant”, and a block of ice appears above it. Astor doesn’t see the plant anymore, and the weird shape seems to be obscured, so that worked well enough.

He makes another ice block, and a couple more, but that breaks the block over the plant. Astor looks over at it, and sees it rotate toward him, revealing two big yellow eyes.  _ Uh oh. _ The creature jumps out of the water and spits a rock at him, which he dodges, and he pulls out his bow, panicking. He barely dodges the next rock, nocking an arrow and firing at the bluish creature. One shot takes it out, making it screech, as it seems to bounce away on the surface of the water. It disappears in a puff of smoke and leaves behind a tentacle, a round purple organ, and a dead fish. Astor cringes a little, watching them float away and finding the sight kind of gross. He finishes his path to the tower, and soon is climbing up the side of it.

When he reaches the top, he flops over the edge and lays on the platform for a bit, exhausted. Pulling himself up with extra weight is a lot harder than climbing down with just the basic gear he’d had at first. After a few minutes of recuperation, he stands up and goes to the guidance stone, watching the glowing blue liquid accumulate at the bottom of the pillar before dripping onto the slate, soon revealing a map. The text “Dueling Peaks Tower Activated” appears as the circle behind him lights up in blue, and Astor looks at the roads on the map. With no indicators aside from the roads, he could only guess where the villages or towns might be.

Turning back to the gap between the mountains, Astor mentally prepares himself to dive off of another tower. He makes sure everything’s all attached to him or in his bag, and runs off the side, screaming again but only for a bit. He’s terrified of the height he’s basically falling from and it’s certainly unhelpful that the paraglider’s so small and his feet are just suspended above the air, but he knows this isn’t the last time he has to do this and would rather not possibly alert monsters. Deciding to land on the nearest ledge in the mountains’ gap, he stops for a bit as he folds the paraglider back up. He takes some deep breaths, mentally reassuring himself that it’s fine, he’s okay, and he’s on the ground. He walks a little way along the path, finding a Rushroom stuck to the wall, picks it, and keeps going. The path gradually gets narrower, before stopping entirely- but at a shrine! He looks out the gap and decides to check the time on the sheikah slate- 2:23 pm. How had it already been nine hours since he awoke? He activates the shrine and rides the little elevator down, hoping he won’t emerge from it at night.

He sees that this one has a lot more abyss space. He approaches the massive square shaped thing on the floor, not sure what it does, but cautiously steps onto it. It goes down faster than he expected, and he almost falls forward, catching himself and fixing his balance but nonetheless scaring himself. He looks up, panting, and watches some sort of orb roll into a pit, both bearing identical glowing orange markings which turn blue when they connect properly. He watches a platform start to float to him, and he wearily walks onto it when it arrives. He saw the platform the orb rolled down return to its original position as he stepped off the large floor button, and trying to not look at the abyss below he waits to be delivered to the platform near it. Stepping off, he assesses the next sort of puzzle, and places a foot onto the button ahead, removing it a couple moments later so the next orb won’t roll into the abyss he was trying to ignore. He notices an inactive platform next to him, so steps on it as the orb rolls down into its respective pit.

Arriving at the last button, he sees the last orb on a platform much too short for it to just roll to its pit.  _ Oh, lovely. _ He places a foot onto the button and watches the orb roll, taking his foot off but watching in horror as it falls. Not sure what to do, he sees an orb fall from a weird tube, and decides to try again. After a few attempts, he finally gets it in, but watches in disappointment as the platform leaves without him. Getting on when it returns, he makes his way to the monk, and receives a sixth spirit orb. Finding himself outside once again, he checks the time, finding it’s now 6:30 pm. He frowns, sure that time passes faster in the shrines, and hopes that it’s not too detrimental to his mission. Maybe he can just teleport to these without completing each one, he’ll have to see, but he has to find the stable before it gets dark.

He looks into the river and sees some weird green things swimming around in there, so he decides he wants to avoid whatever’s going on there and glides along the shoreline he’s already at. Landing a rather short distance away, he sees a tower similar to bokoblin camp towers from the plateau, and also sees another elevated ledge, so he starts heading to the beginning of the ledge. It’s not up TOO high, and after only a bit of struggling, he scrambles up onto it. Walking along, he sees six bokoblins in the camp- four red and two blue. He avoids their detection, taking note of the weird apparent treasure chest on the little tower, and continues hiking through the Dueling Peaks’ gap. This path gets narrower toward the end too, and walking around the black rock he doesn’t know is an ore deposit, he reaches the other side, looking around the bend to see some sort of massive tent. He glides down and walks to it, barely avoiding the pond with another shrine in it, and realizes that this must be the stable. He sighs with relief, glad to finally have found it. He sees all the people, including a man with an unusually large backpack shaped… weirdly, and a few people sitting at the nearby fire. Some weird guy was standing at the far end, doesn’t look too weird, but Astor doesn’t like his vibes, so he decides he won’t talk to that guy unless the man approaches him or something. Looking to the field, he sees another tower in the distance, and some sort of statue, at least presumably, silhouetted against the distant mountains.

Astor asks for a bed from the man at the desk, having been made to go inside to ask, and hands the man a red rupee after the deal’s been made. He goes to the bed the man directs him to, and flops onto it, relieved that he has a real bed to sleep on and realizing that Rhoam’s bed was kind of very uncomfortable, actually. Removing his items and getting comfortable, he wishes once more that he won’t have nightmares again as he closes his eyes.


	12. Chapter 11: To Kakariko ft. Hestu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astor's fears are confirmed by the broccoli man and he accidentally names a horse after the princess of twilight. Also finally he doesn't have a nightmare for once!

Astor finds himself in a different bed. He’s in a small, almost cozy room, and sunlight is filtering in through the window, between the shutters. He sits up and kicks the blankets off- he’s a lot shorter even when he stands up, but that’s not something that matters- he’s gotta go somewhere! He runs to his door, opening it, and rushing to his parents’ room, opening the door carefully so it won’t squeak too loud. His dads are still in bed, and he climbs atop one of them from the foot of the bed, trying to wake them up. Today’s important, he’s turning 6! How could they still be asleep at a time like this? He reaches a space between them and stops crawling, kneeling and reaching out to pat their foreheads.

“Papaaa, daaad, you know what day it is?”

Azelphir grunts, trying to sleep, as Thelem looks up at his son. “Hm? What day’s it?”

“My birthday papa! I’m gonna be six, we’re s’posed to celebrate!”

“Gimme another hour,” Azelphir mutters. Thelem yawns, and sits up, patting Astor on the head and ruffling his hair. “Dad’s still gonna sleep, but i’m gonna get up to make you some breakfast, alright?”

“Alright!” Astor climbs off the bed as Thelem gets up and turns to Azelphir. “Have a good rest of your sleep, dear,” he says with a smile.

“Mmmf,” Azelphir responds, rolling over. Astor excitedly follows Thelem out to the kitchen and sits at the table, watching Thelem start to cook something good- but then he’s awoken.

He wakes up, confused, to see the stablemaster waking him.

“It’s, um, morning, and uhh, you okay? You were crying….” The man looks concerned as Astor subconsciously sniffles. “What?” He rubs his eyes, still waking up.

“You were crying, are you okay??” Astor realizes that his face is, in fact, wet with tears and wipes them away. “Yeah, I’m fine, sorry about that.” He yawns and stretches, getting up. “Hey, have you got a horse I can borrow or something?”

“Oh, we don’t do that here,” the stablemaster says, failing to suppress the tone that indicates that Astor should have known. “You gotta go catch a horse, bring it back, and pay 20 rupees to get it fixed up for riding.”

Astor blinks a few times and rubs his eyes again, clearing his vision. “Very well… And where might I find some horses?”

“They’re all over this field, pal. All you gotta do is sneak up to one, mount it, and then steer it back this way. I’ll be waiting at the front when you bring one back.”

Astor nods and tiredly mutters “thanks” as he sits up, stretching. He decides he should probably leave his bag here for now- it’ll be better with a horse to help carry things, but it will hinder his attempts at getting one- so he nudges it under the bed with his heel, after pulling out an apple and a toasted Hylian shroom for breakfast. Readjusting the blankets after he gets up, it’s hidden quite well, so he decides it’s safe enough from thieves. Time to find a horse.

He walks around the stable after exiting, passing the man with the weird vibes. The man looks at Astor-  _ damn, please don’t talk to me- _ and gives a half wave. “Gonna be a full moon tonight.”

“Uh, cool? Thanks?”  _ This guy watches the moon, huh? Why? _ As though he knows what Astor is thinking, Hino continues. “You’re welcome. Sometimes it turns into a blood moon on full moons, and I’m hoping tonight’ll be the night.”

“Blood moon?”  _ Something about that sounds familiar…. _

“Yes, it’s when the moon turns blood red. And monsters come back to life! They return to life as though they never died, no matter how many times they’ve been slain! Incredible, isn’t it? I’m trying to study the blood moon, but it’s hard when no one knows what really causes it….”

“It’s Ganon,” Astor blurts out, still processing what Hino was rambling about.

“What? How do you know? Nobody’s seen or heard of it in a hundred years, why would that cause the blood moon?”

“What… What else would revive the monsters?” Astor, bewildered by his apparent knowledge on blood moons, didn’t actually remember more than what he’d blurted out. Hino turns away from him, lifting his hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture. “Hmm, makes sense… Perhaps you're onto something, kid.”

Astor takes this as a sign he can leave, and hikes over the smallish hill behind the stable to look out over the plain, shielding his eyes when the hill no longer covers him from the sun. The field ahead had weird vibes too, but from what? He scanned the scenery- ruins, trees, horses, big statue in the middle, horses, empty grass, more horses. He tilts his head a bit, wondering if something bad must’ve happened here. Places of tragedy usually have strange feelings to them-  _ how do I know that? Am I just making shit up now? _ He shakes his head, closing his eyes and trying to focus. Catch a horse, and go to Kakariko, that’s what has to be done today. He eyes the multiple groups of horses, inspecting them all. Each one was a different color, it would have been hard to choose if he hadn’t spotted a solid black one with white fur around its hooves and a white spot on its forehead in the shape of a star. That one looked like the best one, so he started sneaking to the horses. He’d overheard someone say that they can spot you from a rather far distance, and they’ll be able to run away all day, and that sounds like an utter waste of time to deal with. 

He weaves his way through brick structures that appear to be remnants of nearly decimated buildings. The amount of grass and lack of any rubble makes it impossible for him to guess what the building’s layout may have been, so he tries to hold back his curiosity about it as he approaches the group with his horse. His path takes him closer to the statue, which he can now see better- It’s of a man wielding a sword, in a stance ready to fight or defend? Astor looks at the platform which the carved man stands upon, and reads the inscription below him;

“Upon this field fell the Princess’ royal knight, Link.

May he forever be remembered for his courage,

And may we honor him by displaying courage in

times which need it.”

The numbers which presumably showed the years of this Link’s birth and death were chipped away, but Astor thought he could make out only a seventeen year difference. He frowns; _ Something tragic really did happen here… _ . He reflects for a moment on his nightmares, looking up at the statue of Link and recognizing him well enough from the forest one. He looks down then, as if to avert his gaze from a glare that couldn’t be delivered, and hoped he hadn’t been the one to kill the knight who was hardly almost an adult. He closes his eyes and takes a few breaths;  _ Remember the mission, I must focus on the task before me. _ He looks up, eyes level, and turns to the group of horses. He’s going to get that horse today, ideally within the hour.

He crouches, sneaking behind some bushes as he makes his way to the small herd of four. Chestnut with spots, beige- or pink?- and blond, bluish gray, and there. The black one with white accents. Just about 20 feet away, practically within reach! He cautiously leaves the safety of the bushes, half-crawling through the grass as he sneaks up on the horse. He’s not alerted any of them yet, and he tries not to think about what it would feel like if that horse were to kick him when he gets within its range. He gets almost right up next to it, really wishing they’d had horse catchers at the stable, and springs up with as much might as his scrawny legs can muster.

Clinging to the horse’s neck, he hardly has any time to wonder if this is even an effective method when it whinnies and starts running. Grateful that he managed to get one leg over it, he clings on for dear life as the horse races around, hoping it won’t try to use the ruins or anything to scrape him off. The horse keeps running, rearing up at times, so Astor continues to hold on and hope it isn’t too strenuous for his limbs, until it finally calms down.

He waits for a moment, watching the scenery turn from green, gray and blue blurs back into the plain, mountains and sky, and sits up on his new steed. He looks around, eyebrows raised, before looking down at the horse’s head. It’s head is turned and it’s looking at him too, he feels like he’s being judged an awful lot by this horse. He looks away, looking down at its mane now and realizing he doesn’t know how to drive a horse.

“Er… move? Please? Stable? Do you know the word ‘stable’?” The horse makes a sound somewhat like a sigh, turns away from him and walks onto the dirt path it ran to. It’s walking in the direction of the stable, at least. Astor gently pets its neck, trying to think of a name for this wild creature. He thinks of names, with various results coming to mind; Azelphir, Sooga, Hestu…. He gets the impression that they’re all male names and tries to think of names for if it’s a female horse; Zelda? _ No, that might be weird. _ Impa, Mipha, Purah? He wonders if these are real names or if he’s just making everything but Zelda up.

Soon enough, after much name contemplation, the stable’s close enough ahead. The man with the massive backpack is walking to it- strange, wasn’t he leaving earlier?- and Astor catches up to and soon passes him, despite the horse going almost painfully slow. Astor worries that one day that man will be pancaked by that thing for a moment, before the man at the desk calls out to him.

“Hey, nice horse! That the one you want?”

“Yeah,” Astor calls back. “A saddle I could attach a bag to won’t be more expensive, will it?”

The man shakes his head. “Buddy, that’s the only kinda saddle we got. Rensa! Get this man a saddle and his horse some shoes!” At that, but after a moment or two, a completely identical man comes out of the stable with a saddle and a leather bag, so Astor slides off the horse and goes to retrieve his bag and one of the remaining two red rupees. He returns to the horse, fishing out the small red gem, and finds Rensa hammering the shoes onto the horse, saddle and bridle already on.

He hands the rupee to Not-Rensa, who pulls out a paper with a lot of text on it. Astor’s glad he retained his literacy through the century-long coma, and he scans it as Not-Rensa hands him a pen. “This is just some paperwork you gotta sign to have your horse registered in the system we’ve got throughout the stables.” Astor nods, reading something about “liability” and “horses versus Guardian lasers”. “Please sign here, and write your horse’s name on the line below.”

Astor looks at the empty line Not-Rensa taps, and writes his name out in sloppy yet legible Hylian. He frowns, not having decided on a name yet, and looks back at his horse. “Hmm… I’ve not come up with a name yet….”

“It’s okay pal, take your time. She’s a real beaut, she deserves a name to match.” Astor nods, completely having forgotten any name ideas he’d had.  _ Some name to match, huh… and she looks like the night. Night’s too plain though… Midnight? Midna? Maybe one of those? _ He internally shrugs before scratching out “Midna” in more messy Hylian. “Midna?” Astor nods to Not-Rensa, and smiles a little. “Yeah, short for Midnight!” Rensa’s yet unnamed twin then takes the paper and files it away. “Nice, have fun with your new horse, buddy!” He waves, and Astor waves back before approaching Midna, glad that he avoided further embarrassment. Rensa shows him how to attach his bag to the new saddle, and then returns to the stable. Astor climbs up onto his horse, properly this time, and steers her toward Kakariko Village, after grabbing the few apples they have out available for free of course. 

They ride back up the path, going beyond the path Midna first took Astor down and approaching a bridge. Astor sees a sign at the fork in the road, and reads that Kakariko’s ahead, and Hateno is up along the path he’d been on earlier. He nods to himself as his steed steps up onto the bridge, and feels some level of relaxed now that he doesn’t have to do every last bit of the walking. He glances at some traveler who was standing on the other side of the bridge, and they lock eyes with him- they were wearing a smirk that could be interpreted either as curious or malicious, and Astor didn’t want to deal with thieves so he steers the horse toward the incline, away from them. Unfortunately he can’t yet see the real threat, standing up ahead next to a tree.

Even unarmed and after a century, Hestu looked at the man riding up the hill and wanted to beat him up. He was certain the moment he spotted Astor that that’s the guy that filled his home with gross pink and black mud and monsters about a hundred years ago. And now he’s back after Hestu got mugged by monsters, this  _ can’t  _ be a coincidence. That man was behind this, and he would pay for it, and Hestu’s going to get his maracas back one way or another. Hestu walks to the middle of the path, making himself visible to the horse first, making her rear up suddenly and throwing Astor off. Hestu smiles as much as he can without a mouth when this awful little man hits the ground.

“Ow-!! Midna?! What’s wrong?!” Astor watches his horse gallop ahead, seeming to run around something on the pathway. Astor watches the space with suspicion, sitting up and rubbing his hip, which took most of the damage from his fall. He doesn’t know what can break bones but if his hip broke he’s about to  _ utterly destroy _ whatever may have caused this-  _ oh that’s almost as mad as I felt in that nightmare, _ he realizes, and then frowns. Suddenly though some large shape appears before him, yelling “BOO!” in a rather surprisingly high pitched voice. Astor screams and cowers, holding his arms up to shield himself, and hears annoyingly squeaky laughing.

“Hahahahahaha, you fool! You utter buffoon! You thought you could evade me for a century, like I’d  _ forget _ you?! ESPECIALLY when your minions stole my prized maracas?!” Hestu hears the little man sob, and this makes him feel bad. “No, why are you crying?! You aren’t supposed to cry!” His voice quivers with growing concern as Astor keeps crying. Astor doesn’t currently care if whatever being this is attacks him, he’s too horrified at the increased likelihood of his nightmare being a memory. He only hopes that it was significantly worse in his nightmare.

Hestu watches this little guy start shaking and he’s now afraid he attacked the wrong man. Why didn’t he think more? There’s a stable just down the road with  _ two pairs _ of identical Hylians! Hestu awkwardly sits down in front of the man he apparently traumatized, and tries to gently pat his head. “Um, there there,” the oversized Korok does his best to comfort him, “I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else….” Hestu watches as he shakes his head, trying to say something but unable to speak. Hestu thinks this must be one of those people who bottles up their emotions, and feels bad that he broke this man’s bottle of emotions. Hestu tries to think of a way to fix this man’s day, cuz apparently he ruined it. “Umm, I’ll uh, get your horse!” Hestu gets up and waddles away, Astor watching through his tears.  _ I don’t think I should tell him… I should help him with his maracas, though.  _ Hestu carefully approaches the horse, offering an apple, and soon Astor’s reunited with his steed. He tries to stop crying but it’s hard; This being was in his nightmare, and if his maracas are similar to whatever ‘he’ got hit with in the nightmare then it will only add to the likelihood of that nightmare being true. Hestu keeps apologizing and Astor waves his hand to try to get him to stop, still crying but much more quietly now.

Hestu scratches some of the branches on his head, feeling bad for his mistake. Of course this wasn’t the same man, too, Hylians don’t even live like  _ that long. _ “I’m sorry again, you just look so much like him…. Your voice even sounds the same! If you had the same name this would be a crazy coincidence, but I don’t remember that meanie’s name. Oh! And I was a meanie, I wasn’t any better!” Astor sniffles and wipes his face off with his sleeve, again. “No, no, I get it, it’s alright. Guy sounds like he must’ve been like…. A total asshole or something, huh?” Hestu nods. “Yeah, but you don’t seem like one. That’s why I feel so bad!” Astor waves his hand again. “No, I forgive you, don’t worry about it alright?”

“Alright….”

“What was that about the maracas? I’ll help you get those back, still.”

“Really?! Woo-hoo! Um, some bokoblins stole them, their camp is up ahead… I thought I could befriend them by playing a song but they just took my maracas and yelled at me!”

Astor, finally done crying, nods. “Alright, give me a few minutes, alright?” He smiles a little at Hestu, really glad that the Korok can’t read his mind, and starts hiking up, pulling his horse along by the reins. “W-wait! I’ll fight them too, you’re like still crying!”

“I’m fine now, but thanks. Need a weapon? I have a sledgehammer.”

“Oh boy, a sledgehammer! Gimme, gimme, gimme!” Astor, concerned about the apparent lust for violence within the forest spirit but glad for the assistance, complies and lets him borrow the hammer. They reach the entrance before too long, and Hestu quickly waddles in, yelling “Come, brethren!” Astor watches as many smaller Koroks seem to appear out of thin air, and before he can even draw his sword he hears bokoblins screaming like they do when they die. He hears a faint “Yaaaaaay!” and some rattling, then a crash and another delighted yell before Hestu comes back. He stares at the red, round maracas, horrified by what Rhoam’s statement of “despite your past” apparently meant. Hestu hands him the sledgehammer back as he continues to stare, which Hestu notices.

“Oh, you like them? Aren’t they lovely? I’ve had them since I was two!”

“Yeah,” Astor nods slowly, “They’re nice.” Astor feels like he might throw up or pass out, he cried really hard and he’s completely horrified. He hopes he didn’t kill anyone- _ oh shit, oh no, I did. _ He pinches the bridge of his nose and groans quietly.

“Huh? Are you okay?”

“Just a headache… Kakariko’s not too much farther, is it?”

“Oh, no, it’s just ahead! I’ll lead the way!”

Hestu helps Astor onto Midna- practically puts him up there, really- and leads the horse down the path. Astor leans forward, feeling ill, and only looks up when he hears the clacking of wood. He sees a gate with a sign at the top.

_ Kakariko. _

He’s going to go through with this mission, now at one of the key places Rhoam directed him to. He  _ will _ right as many of his wrongs as he can, and he hopes it will make up for at least something.


	13. Impa and Totally Not Impa's Clone Live Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Impa makes deals with Astor and he finally gets rid of his dingy ass clothes

Astor looks around the village as Hestu leads the horse. It’s very peaceful here, and the people seem happy. It feels familiar, but he doubts he would have grown up here- nothing about the garb everyone wears like a uniform is as familiar as the feeling the village has. Hestu continues to lead the horse toward the other end of town, and Astor continues to look at everything and take in the sights, unaware that Hestu isn’t visible to anyone else. The guards in front of Impa’s house watch in confusion as the horse is led by its floating reins, and eye the Hylian atop the horse with suspicion. Only when he pulls out the Sheikah Slate to check where he is on the map do they drop their suspicion.

“You!”

Astor looks over at them and points up to himself, confused and afraid that they might want to attack him too.

“Yeah, you, is that a Sheikah Slate?”

“Uhh, yeah, why?”

“Lady Impa’s been waiting for you!”

 _Impa…? That’s a real name?_ He climbs off the horse when Hestu stops, and goes to the two guards, who step to the sides of the stairs leading up to the biggest house in the village. He looks up at the doors, and hesitates.

“Go on, you must speak with her!”

He nods and starts walking up, mildly afraid that Impa might attack him but less so. Surely she won’t be someone who remembers him from a century ago, right?

He opens the door, and a small old woman looks up at him before muttering “No way….”

_Oh no._

“I don’t believe it… _Astor?!_ ”

“Yeah,” His voice cracked due to how nervous he was. “Um... what’s… up?”

Impa rolls her eyes and turns to the girl next to her, who was so wrapped up in wiping the dust off another one of those orbs that she didn’t even realize anything significant had happened. “Paya, dear, would you please transfer five hundred rupees to your aunt Purah? It seems I’ve lost a bet.” “Huh?” The girl looked at Astor, and she looked way too familiar. “Yes, grandma!”

“Tell her that he’s alive and that’s her bet money too!”

Paya walks up the stairs as she says “Of course!”, and Impa turns back to Astor. “Sorry, that’s a bit insensitive but I didn’t want to forget. So anyway, you’re back! You here to finish what you started, or have you changed paths?”

“Um, I don’t remember much, but I guess I’ve changed paths…?”

“What’s your opinion on Calamity Ganon?”

“He’s tormenting the princess and I’ve got to kill him.”

“... He, huh…?”

“What?” Astor tilts his head, confused.

“It’s just that by normal standards, Calamity Ganon is an enigma, not to be personified.”

“Did I personify him?”

“... Do you hear what you’re saying?”

“Um… yesss…?” He smiles a little, awkwardly. It’s more of a ‘please don’t beat me up’ smile than a ‘I know what I’m doing’ smile.

“You’re personifying it by referring to it as though it’s a person, saying “Him”. How deeply were you devoted to him, that it was so ingrained into you to say that despite your apparent amnesia?”

“I don’t remember, but… I hope not too much….” He looks down, his words turning to mumbling. He sighs and tries not to cry or throw up, whichever he feels more like doing. Paya listens from the top of the stairs, thinking about what she might do if he attacks her grandmother and comes for her. She’s heard tales of the battles of the calamity, and of a man so pale he looked undead who wielded malice in a conduit made of Sheikah technology. A conduit which she has part of in a box on her bookshelf, gifted to her because Impa had thought Astor wasn’t coming back for it anytime soon, and Paya had shown interest in studying such technology a few years back. Paya listens intently and prays to the goddesses that she’ll be able to hide under her bed well enough if something does happen.

Impa watches Astor as he sighs quietly, and she can practically feel the shame and horror radiating from him. “Hmm….” He doesn’t look up, but awaits the results of her scrutiny, closing his eyes.

“You really have changed, haven’t you…?”

Astor looks up at her, unknowingly having teared up. Impa looks at him with pity; He looks so much younger now than he had. He’s practically a child compared to her now, no longer physically her senior by a handful of years.

“What do you aim to do, Astor, with your new chance at life?”

“I… I want to do better. I want to help Zelda, and defeat ganon.”

“Why?”

Astor feels that he has to choose his next words carefully, though he really doesn’t. “W-well… Zelda- P-Princess Zelda, I mean, woke me, and I was given this, er, new chance at life to help her, and I’ve had nightmares… that might be memories… and I’m sickened by what I’ve seen, and what I must’ve done.” He looks down again, somewhat embarrassed about mentioning the nightmare-memories, but Impa nods.

“I see… I can’t _believe_ this.”

Astor tears up intentionally, fearing he’s done something wrong, before Impa continues.

“This is great news! This is far better an outcome than any of us had predicted!”

Astor looks up at Impa once more. “R-Really?”

“Yes! I hadn’t even expected you to _survive!_ But you did, and you wish to help our princess!”

Paya sighs with relief. She silently thanks Hylia for Astor’s change of heart, even if it seemed strange based on what little she knew of him.

“Y-yeah, I do… R- er, King Rhoam had told me to come to Kakariko and Hateno to find out from you what I need to do, and he said something about--”

“King Rhoam? He’s dead, though….”

Astor nods. “He is, but he helped me after I woke up in the form of a spirit. He said something about an orb?” Impa’s eyes widen before she facepalms. She mutters something that Astor can only discern disappointment from, before looking at him again. “You weren’t supposed to know about that so soon, ideally, but I suppose that was unavoidable. Hmm….” She looks down thoughtfully, raising her hand to her chin. Astor tilts his head, wondering what she may be thinking about, as Paya listens for the verdict on what to do with her third of the man’s former weapon. She glances at the box on her shelf, hoping that she'll be able to see it when it’s restored, and if so that it won’t be in the hands of an enemy. As much as her grandmother may place faith in that lanky, greasy-haired man, Paya was still suspicious. Maybe it was because he’s so pale, with dark circles under his eyes, and he just gave off the vibes of someone evil? Paya realized she was getting lost in her thoughts, and tries to listen in again.

“Well, what do you know about it, exactly?” Had been the only phrase she missed as Astor tries to recall exactly what Rhoam had said.

“Something about you and… Purah, right? You and her guiding me, and… Robbie has the last piece.”

Impa nods. “Well, he was correct. I believe Purah has resources to upgrade your Sheikah Slate, and I’ve got to inform you of the rest of your task on behalf of Princess Zelda, so after your slate is upgraded by Purah you can come back for my piece of your... orb. Now, what do you know of your task, again?”

Astor glances around, trying to remember if he might have forgotten anything. “... Kill Ganon?” He shrugs, “is that not just about it?”

“Well,” Impa crosses her arms, “How do you plan to do that, with your little baby sword?” Astor looks down at his Traveler’s Sword. “What’s wrong with it? It does the job.”

“Yeah, killing the weakest bokoblins. Red ones are the easiest, I presume?” Astor looks up at her and raises his eyebrows, before furrowing them. “Yeah… where am I supposed to get better weapons, and then store them?”

“There should be an armorer and blacksmith in Hateno, and Purah can perhaps help you with storage,” She glances at the Sheikah Slate, “but I’m sure that will be expensive. You’ll be able to find weapons in the meantime at monster camps, sometimes they have quality weapons I hear.” 

Astor nods, listening intently. Clearly one red rupee won’t get him far- he’ll have to loot that Bokoblin camp Hestu wiped out before turning in for the night anywhere.

“You will also need to free the Divine Beasts.” Astor raises his eyebrows; finally some elaboration on whatever those are. “I doubt you remember, so I’ll _remind_ you. There are four, all across Hyrule. Vah Ruta, of Lanayru; Vah Rudania, of Eldin; Vah Medoh, of Tabantha; and Vah Naboris, of Gerudo. Each area is the domain of the Zora, Goron, Rito, and Gerudo people respectively.” Astor recalls the four he’d seen once again- red Zora, blackish-blue Rito, a Goron like a boulder with a beard, and the one he knew was the chief of the Gerudo. “They were overtaken by Malice, by Calamity Ganon one hundred years ago, though I don’t know how much you were aware of that considering you’d fallen in the middle of Blatchery Plain not too long after.” _The same place Link perished._ Astor shudders a bit again, hoping once more that he hadn’t killed the boy.

“I’ve received news that they became active once more, after a century of silence. Did you wake about four days ago?”

“Has it only been four days?”

“... Evidently. Anyway, they need to be freed to help both you in your task, and to save the people of Hyrule from the terror they can enact. Medoh is visible from nearly everywhere in Hyrule, but it’s also the farthest from us. Naboris is in, or near, a place that you apparently frequented in the years leading up to the calamity. Ruta is nearest and in an area with a normal climate, or really it’s most similar to where you’ve been so far, and Rudania is on Death Mountain. Make your choice on what order you wish to free them in, I’d advise you get on that soon.” Impa offers a somewhat wry smile as Astor processes the newly added steps to his task.

“Oh, but do make sure you talk to Purah first. You should be able to find Robbie on your journey, and if you need anything feel free to ask me.”

“.... can I borrow some rupees? I only have a red one, and if I manage to survive I’ll do my best to repay you.”

“Promise, Astor? I don’t lend money all willy-nilly for empty promises.”

“Hey, I promise! What do you-” he starts to trail off- “take… me… for…. Okay so I don’t _want_ to be an evil asshole, I can promise you that. And, um, I’m pretty sure that would cover my promise about repaying you for the help.”

Impa smiles. “Very well. Paya!” Paya starts running down the stairs. “Yes grandmother?”

“Please fetch…” She glances at Astor as though judging him yet again- it’s a bit funny to see him as a normal young adult when he’s not trying to kill people. “... 1,500 rupees for our new hero, will you?”

“Oh, um, of course!” Paya goes back up to the box where they keep their money, and puts five gold rupees into a small pouch, before going back down and holding the bag out to Astor in a similar fashion to someone offering food to a wild animal that might bite. He takes the pouch after a moment, eyebrows raised in surprise. He looks up at Impa as Paya walks back to the orb, to wipe any dust off of it.

“This much?? You’re sure?”

“It will get you where you need to go until you can hopefully accrue enough things to sell on your journey.” Impa smiles a little, more kindly than earlier, as Astor looks at the little pouch in awe.

“I- wow… thank you. I-Impa, correct?” She nods. “I’m quite grateful for the help. I’ll do the best I can to repay you when it’s all done.”

He puts the small pouch into a pocket, and turns to leave before she pipes up once more.

“Hold on.”

He looks back and tilts his head. “Yes?”

“Are those _actually_ your century old clothes?”

Astor looks down at his clothes, which he thought were actually preserved quite well. “How did you know?”

“They’re practically falling apart! Paya, dear, please take him to Enchanted.” _Where?_ Paya sighs with exaggerated exasperation. She doesn’t want to hang out with Astor, he looks like if a possum was turned into a Hylian, but she stands up anyway. “How much money should I bring?”

“Oh, just a gold rupee should do it. He can have new clothes on me, those clothes haven’t aged as well as me and nobody wants them to fall apart.” Astor looks at his outfit, raising one eyebrow and lowering the other, as Paya goes up to get another gold rupee from the box. Astor doesn’t see anything wrong until he sees the warm doublet falling apart at the seams, rather badly along his right arm. He thought that arm was unreasonably cold.

Paya returns, walking to the front door. “Seeya in a bit grandma!” She and Impa wave at each other, and Astor gives an awkward little wave to Impa before following Paya out. The sun was now covered by clouds, but it doesn’t seem like it’s about to rain, and Astor’s glad about the lack of rain even though Paya only leads him across the path. A woman standing outside of a building that resembled every house but Impa’s greets them cheerfully as Paya turns to the door. “Good morning, welcome to Enchanted! Aww, who’s your _friend,_ Paya?” She giggles, and Astor can’t see Paya’s look of disgust, prompted by Lasli’s apparent implication that they were dating or something. Astor didn’t pick up on the implication. “My _friend_ here is Astor, and he needs new clothes before he _leaves_.” Astor nods, not sure why Paya seems to be so upset. Did the other woman offend Paya? Was it offensive in Sheikah culture? Had HE been offensive to Paya, is that why she was upset?

“Oh, alright! I see, well, head on in!” Lasli giggles again as Paya hurries inside. She doesn’t like Astor and _especially_ not however Lasli might think. Astor follows Paya, looking up at her when she turns around. “Okay, the less expensive clothes are like, right there.” She points to Astor’s right, and he turns to see plain pants, another shirt with leather straps and pouches, and some sort of hood all on display in front of piles of folded clothes in the same colors. He wishes he had a hood already but a new one will be nice, especially if Impa’s getting it for him. “I’ll wait here so you can try stuff on and find what you want to get, okay? I have enough for like, one outfit, though.” Astor had looked back at her after assessing the clothes, and she _really_ seemed so familiar but he couldn’t put his finger on why. He looked at her for a few more moments to try and figure it out.

“... Would you _stop_ staring at me and get your clothes?”

“Oh! Sorry, yeah.” He goes and starts sorting through the clothes, finding sizes that seem like they’ll fit, and Paya is more than displeased that this guy had to embarrass her further. She ignores Claree, who’s watching Astor to see what he’s getting and judging his clothes. After picking out a whole outfit, he goes to the changing room near the back of the store and puts the new clothes on. Good thing, too, because the shirt he’d cut the sleeves off of practically falls apart when he tugs it off. Only two seams along the main part of the shirt still held it together, the right shoulder and side, and he drops it and sighs disappointedly. He liked that shirt, as shitty as it was. His old pants weren’t much better since that stick had torn open a seam too, but thankfully they were made to be a bit more durable. At least the old boots weren’t so flimsy.

After putting on the ensemble, he looks at himself in the mirror, thinking the new clothes do look a lot better, actually. He likes the hood, though he couldn’t describe why. Wearing it just seemed to feel right. He pokes his head out and looks at Claree, though spotting Paya across the store looking at some shirts. “Um… Can I buy these while wearing them? My shirt fell apart.”

“It looked like it would, yeah, come out here.” He goes out toward the counter, carrying the old clothes and new boots as the old ones were still adequate enough.

“Paya, come pay for your boyfriend!”

“Oh, no, I’m not-”

“He isn’t my boyfriend! He’s just short!” Paya stomps over and places the gold rupee on the counter, accepting the one red and two blue rupees, and then leaves. Astor follows her out, but they part ways at the bend Paya led him through earlier, as she goes back to the house instead of to the grocery store. He goes to his horse, who Hestu was feeding apples- the guards watched the telekinetic horse in awe- and puts his old clothes in the bag, wrapping the much newer boots in them. He felt bad about having embarrassed Paya. Had he done anything to imply what the two women had been teasing her about? He shakes his head, pushing the thought to the side. “I’ve got to go to Hateno.”

“Oh? Alright! I gotta go back to Korok Forest, bye friend!” He waves at Hestu and the guards wonder if the horse could have said that. He turns Midna around and goes back the way he came into town- after looting the bokoblin camp, he turns on to the path toward Hateno, watching Link’s statue as he rides through the plain. He tries to remember if he’d been the one to kill Link, but can’t remember anything and only feels sick after a bit. He decides that will have to wait, and tries to make Midna speed up somewhat. A mere trot won’t likely get him to Hateno before nightfall.


	14. Chapter 13: To Hateno, Where They Live to Dye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astor gets the third tower, and searches for Purah. He also decides to treat himself today

It was already mid afternoon when Astor arrived at the next tower. He’d shot and looted monsters on the way here, and now he looked up at the massive spire and felt befuddled.  _ How am I meant to reach the top with those massive brambles in the way? _ As he circled the tower- well, half circled it, given the clear land- he could see a bit of a path through the spiked vines, but not a whole path.  _ What will I do if the path stops, jump off? And if the thorns catch me, or if they tear the paraglider? _

He sighs lightly. He tries to think if he’s got anything to burn them with; a torch, yes, but how much use is that alone? He raises his hand to his chin and looks at the pile of burnt wood that the last bokoblin had been sitting at before it was slain, disappointed that the creature hadn’t reignited it by the time he arrived-  _ wait. _ He returns to Midna and starts digging through his bag, he couldn’t believe he’d forgotten-  _ yes! _

He pulls out the bundle of arrows and unwraps them, seeing that the strange red tips did indeed seem to resemble flames. He pulls one from the bundle and turns it over a few times, inspecting it. A normal arrow in all ways but for the tip, and touching the flat sides of it gently he could feel a bit of heat radiating from within. Ready to experiment, he nocks the arrow, aims, and fires at the brambles, smiling when it bursts into flames upon hitting them.

He watches the thorns burn, the fire spreading across the tower in an uneven wave and turning them to charred remains and ash faster than Astor could have anticipated. When the fire all disappears, having taken the brambles with it, he climbs up. He reaches the first platform and starts climbing to move around one slightly above it when he sees more brambles and sighs. He climbs onto the platform he’s next to, and seeing as it’s only a thin strip, he determines that using another of his nine remaining arrows would be a waste. He decides to do the next best thing and climbs up next to the higher end of it.

Digging his feet into the holes of the tower and trying to make sure he had a sustainable grip with his right hand as well, he draws his sword and starts poking at the brambles using his left hand, trying to pry their dry yet tough branches from the structure. He chips away at it gradually, his hands starting to sweat as he tries not to look down. He grips the tower hard enough to make his knuckles white, paler than he already is somehow, and continues chipping away at the spikes. The moment it looks like there’s enough space to squeeze past, he puts the Traveler’s Sword back on his belt and does his best to circumvent the spiny monstrosity of a plant.

He scrambles onto the next platform quickly and collapses onto it, breathing heavily. He doubts that he’ll ever get used to the heights of these things, no matter how many there are around this kingdom. He looks up, still panting, and tries to sigh disappointedly but makes a sound more like a distressed, higher pitched groan. Congrats buddy, you made it to more thorns!

Still laying there, he shoots a second fire arrow at the thorns, raising his eyebrows when it only seems to burn half of them. When the wind blows the embers and ash away, thankfully not onto him, he sees why- there’s a gap. The remaining thorns are making a fence right below where he’d need to climb up to reach the platform, and he glares at them. If looks could kill and the brambles hadn’t been dead upon his arrival, he’s sure they’d be dying now.

After a bit, he pulls himself up and climbs to one of the platforms below the last line of brambles, glaring up at them before going to the other side of the platform-  _ Oh thank the goddess. _ This way was clear of them, at least on the way up; there were thorns a little too close to his right for comfort, but nonetheless he had to climb up, and so he did. As he pulls himself over the edge, he sees the back of the guidance stone, and when he’s finally up he goes and extracts the map.

“Hateno Tower Activated” was displayed on the screen before the map faded into view. He inspects the pathways, curious about the circular one nearby before he realizes that a lot of the paths here are connected in circular fashions. He traces out a path he wants to take, from Marblod Plain to Midla Woods, and eyes the respective scenery for any monsters. That somewhat ramshackle array of platforms full of bokoblins down below sure looks like monsters, but eyeing the other way he sees more of those long bokoblins in that circular path. He’d killed two on the way up here and they were scarier up close, so he thinks he’ll continue with the Marblod Plain path. Normal bokoblins weren’t as intimidating as the freakishly long ones. 

Looking below at his horse, who’s eating apples off the tree a short distance from the tower, he takes a few deep breaths before jumping off and opening the paraglider. Once again clinging to something with a knuckle-whitening grip, he tries to only look at his horse as he kicks his legs to avoid landing in brambles. He starts panicking when the wind starts to cause him to float toward the bokoblin encampment, and kicks harder to try and offset his momentum or divert the wind or whatever. He doesn’t know how this is supposed to work, but he doesn’t want to be surrounded by any pig monsters anytime soon. 

After awkwardly floating down in a zig-zag fashion, the wind stops blowing hard enough to move him, so he finishes floating down to his horse in relative peace. Remounting his steed, he steers her back down the way they came, but turns to the left now. Reaching the path, he coaxes her into a gallop, and soon realizes that encampment is closer to the path than he thought when it’s practically right ahead. 

He plans to have her speed up when it’s closer, but then some chuchus fall out of the tree, both onto him and the horse. The horse panics and speeds up, and while one chuchu slides off the back of Midna the other had landed in Astor’s lap, so now he’s carrying a sentient mass of goo while his horse is running almost directly at the massive bokoblin camp. It looks up at him with a blank stare, seeming like if it could speak it would ask him “Well, now what?” Astor doesn’t know the answer though, and he tries to steer Midna a bit more away from the camp before dealing with the smallish blue blob, because a single chuchu seems a lot less of a problem than an unknown number of at least three blue bokoblins.

Riding by the camp, he identifies more bokoblins than three and sees another long one but in a pale gray with purple stripes. He glances at his hands after they pass, realizing that his skin tone is uncomfortably similar to the stretched out bokoblin’s, but forgets about that when he locks eyes with the chuchu again. This one seems docile, but also it’s already caused more stress for him than a blue gelatinous blob should, so he momentarily lets go of the reins and grabs the thing before throwing it off and to the side of the path, grabbing the reins again before he can lose his balance. Midla Woods are approaching quickly, and he doesn’t want Midna to reach them without him.

He pets his steed’s neck as she continues to gallop, slowing down lightly when they reach the treeline. His eyes widen in moderate horror when he sees two bokoblins running around on the path, one swinging a farming tool around itself, and he steers Midna off the path to avoid getting hit, swerving back on only to see people fighting more bokoblins in the forest ahead. He wonders how safe this town can really be, with an apparent monster infestation in the woods, when he gets stopped at the gate by some dude with a pitchfork.

“Hold it! Who are you, you suspicious man?! You oughta be on your way!”

Astor looks at this man with a mix of confusion and disgust. “Excuse me? I literally  _ just _ got here, and I have business.”

“So?!”

“What do you mean? So, I have business to attend to, are you going to let my horse and I in or not?”

“Well, uh, I guess you do look like a Hylian…” The man lowers his pitch fork a little.

“Yes, that means the disguise is working.” He rolls his eyes, looking back at the apparently self appointed guard of the town when he raises his pitchfork again. “That was a joke. Please, do you think a monster would say something so obvious?”

The man lowers his pitchfork all the way. “Fair enough, pal, just don’t do shady things.” He steps aside, and Astor lets Midna know it's okay to go with a couple pats on the neck. He looks around at the houses and townsfolk as he rides through, and most of them ignore him. A few residents wave, each of who he waves back to, when a young woman sweeping the bricks outside of a store labeled “Pharmacy” calls out to him. 

“Hey, young man!” She looks far less than half his actual age, but apparently his height made him look very young, and nobody knew he was somewhere over a hundred.  _ I hardly even realize that myself…. _

“Young man?”

He hadn’t realized he zoned out. “Huh? Oh, sorry, what?”

“Tee hee, it’s alright! The East Wind general store here’s open, would you like to see our wares?”

“Ah, perhaps. Would you be able to tell me where a “Purah” is? I need to find her, for business reasons.”

“Hm, I think my dad would know! He’s inside.”

Astor, suspicious that this is just a ploy to get him to go in and buy things, decides to say ‘screw it’ and dismounts Midna, going into the East Wind. Upon opening the door, he sees the store’s proprietor.

“Welcome!” Astor approaches the counter. “So… uh, what can I do ya for?”

Astor glances at the wares before asking, “Do you know where Purah lives?”

“Huh? The old Sheikah scientist? She lives up on the hill at the far east end of the village, but nobody’s seen her lately….”

“Oh…. Well, thanks, I’ll go see-” Astor stops. He’s noticed the bomb arrows. “What are  _ those? _ ”

“Bomb arrows! They work perfectly fine everywhere outside of Death Mountain and when it’s raining.”

Astor picks up a bundle of five. “How much for this?”

“250 Rupees. Awfully expensive, but that’s because blasting powder’s been hard to come by for the last hundred years.” Astor nods a little as he pulls out the pouch Impa had given him and takes out a gold rupee, handing it to the man whose eyes light up at the sight of it.

“Wow, you’re loaded, huh bud?”

“I’m borrowing it, and I’m hoping these will be worth the money.”

Pruce nods as he puts the gold rupee away, and gives Astor a purple one in exchange. “With a good bow, it should be well worth the money, buddy.” He winks as Astor puts the purple rupee with the gold ones, and when he returns to his horse he sets the bomb arrows into his spare quiver,  _ away _ from the fire arrows. He looks east, seeing part of a building with smoke coming out behind a closer building with a colorful display. Curious, he pulls Midna to it, reading “Colors'' on multiple different signs when he’s nearly in front of it.  _ Well, whatever this place is, they aren’t lying. _ He eyes the display of giant vials full of, well, colors, and looks a bit lower to see a woman with green hair looking at him.

“Hey, first time here? This is the dye shop.”

“The what shop???”

“The dye shop, we dye clothes, hair, whatever you want dyed. We can even dye your horse.”

“Oh, I see. That’s interesting….”

“Why not go in and see if there’s a color ya want?”

“Very well, as long as it isn’t too time consuming.”

“Trust me, pal, it won’t be.”

Astor hesitates a moment before going inside, and enters to find a place that looks like an art museum of some sort. He looks at the displays of white cloth hanging from the wall, each splattered differently with a large range of colors, before approaching the red-haired man standing at some setup of glass items and vials of more colors.

“So, you want to dye today?” The man turns around and laughs, and Astor snickers a little at the pun.

“Yes, I’m here to dye. What colors are there?”

“Well, we dye your whole outfit for just twenty rupees as long as you have enough materials! Just about anything can be used to dye, what things do you have?”

Astor thinks for a moment, recalling his seemingly useless collection of Bokoblin guts. “Oh! Can you use monster parts?”

“Yes! Those can tend to stain skin too though.”

“Ah…” Astor was hoping for purple clothes, purple was a nice color.

“But that’s why we have the Dyeing Man-nequin! So clothes can be dyed with nobody turning weird colors.” Sayge points at a full mannequin that’s a mess of colors, though mostly some weird shade of blackish brown. “That or you can just be dyed entirely purple or blue or something.” 

“I want to dye my clothes purple! Like, dark purple.”

“That hue sounds like it’ll suit you! Go ahead and go up on the platform, but pull the curtain shut when you do! I’ll get the water ready for monster gut dye, you suit up the Dyeing Man and put the bokoblin guts in the basket by his feet!”

Astor hands Sayge his red rupee, the last of the money he wasn’t borrowing, before retrieving five bokoblin guts from his bag and placing anything he wouldn’t need in it. He climbs the stairs, finding a big white shower curtain at the side already adorned with splashes of blue and yellow near the bottom, and pulling it across to obscure himself from view. Astor, not wanting to embarrass himself by asking what he’s supposed to do exactly despite not being sure, puts his full set of clothes on the mannequin save for the underwear he woke up in.  _ Shoot, I need to get more new clothes than I thought, _ he realizes as he remembers that they’re the only pair he has. At least they were preserved better than the other clothes….

He puts on one of the plain white gowns, which are similar to hospital gowns, that were stacked neatly nearby. Placing the guts into the basket attached to the mannequin’s feet, and now standing a couple feet away from it, he calls out to Sayge. “It’s ready!”

Sayge pulls the lever, and the floor drops out from beneath the mannequin… and Astor. He’s at the edge and able to catch it, unlike the immobile figure wearing his clothes, and while he didn’t fall in he did get splashed an awful lot. Pulling himself up moments after falling, he finds that his feet are nearly all purple, and there are splatters on his upper arms and lower legs aside from that. He doesn’t know about the few small blotches on his face.

“You okay up there pal?! Sorry, I thought I marked the edge of that!”

“Yeah, I’m alright! I just dyed a little!”

Sayge laughs at that pun, and Astor looks down into the now purple-filled tub of liquid. Sayge pulls the mannequin out after a bit, standing it up to dry, which it does rather quickly. Astor can see that it dries into a nice darker, muted purple. Something about the shade seems familiar, maybe it’s just his favorite color? He tries to remember the color of the cloak in his dreams, but it’s too easy to imagine it as dark gray or black instead. When it’s dry, he pulls the mannequin back up the stairs and puts his clothes back on, taking some time to admire how they looked.

“Not bad, eh?” Sayge chuckles a bit. “I know it’s a novelty to dye things, but my family’s been doing it for over a hundred years! We know how to do it right!”

“You really do, thank you.”

“Of course! Come back anytime, we’re always ready to dye!”

They both laugh at that joke as Sayge’s wife rolls her eyes outside, and then Astor returns to Midna. He takes out everything he wants from his bag- weapons, money pouch, a toasty shroom- and rides Midna further through the village. He rides through a clearing near a smallish horse stable, wary of the children running around and hoping they won’t run under his horse, and looks at the strange object near the bridge as he passes.  _ Why in Hyrule is that Sheikah-themed item in this Hylian village? Wait, why weren’t there any of those in Kakariko? _ He looks down thoughtfully as Midna takes him across the bridge and onward through the village. 

He pets the horse’s neck gently as they make it up the hill, and he looks up to see the building atop the hill getting closer. Slowly, but still getting closer. He hopes Purah will be cooperative when he gets there. He makes note of more of the odd Sheikah styled structures along the way, until he reaches a tree seemingly right before the hill Purah was said to live on. It takes a second, but he notices the small child standing beside it, seeming to ineffectively be spying on the building atop the hill. Astor stops Midna before she passes the tree.

“Where are your parents???”

“Shush! I’m watching for the girl!”

“What girl?”

“Ugh,” the kid rolls his eyes as if it was obvious, “Karin said she saw a girl up here! A Sheikah girl, coming in and out of the lab up there! Everyone knows there’s only an old man and old woman up there, but Karin swore she saw a girl!”

Astor tilts his head and mildly squints at the child. “What-”

“Sefaro,” The little boy suddenly yells up the hill to Astor’s right, “Have you seen her?!”

“She won’t come out!” Astor hears the response, the other kid was clearly too short to be seen unless he were to climb the hill. How many children were here???

“Why won’t she come out to play?”

Astor couldn’t just leave these unsupervised children here like this. Seriously, their parents were just going to let them come to the outskirts, when bokoblins are practically everywhere? Those would almost certainly eat these children without a second thought!

“Okay, hey, buddy? Kid?” The little boy looks up at Astor. “What?”

“I’m going to go see why she’s hiding, okay? Why don’t you take your friend, or friends, back into the village? It’s not safe where there aren’t adults.”

The little boy notices Astor’s Traveler’s Sword. “Hey, you can protect us! You have a sword!”

“No, kid, I-”

“Sefaro, we have an escort to the lab!”

“No-”

“Yay!” The little boy from the tree runs down the hill, soon joining his friend next to Astor’s horse. “He’s perfect, he’ll scare any monsters away before they even see us!”

“Look, kids, as much as I’d love to do this I don’t have the time.”

“But you’re going up there anyway aren’tcha?”

_ Damn. This kid knew too much. _ Astor sighs. “Yes, I am.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Will you behave if I let you follow me?”

“Behave how?” These kids are clearly looking to be troublesome, aren’t they?

“Be nice, be quiet when asked, just be decent, all that. Can you do that?”

“Yep! Now come on mister, the sun’s gonna go to bed soon!”

Astor checks his Sheikah slate. It’s 5:47 pm. He sighs as he makes Midna continue her trek up to the lab, now accompanied by two small children, and apparently there’s going to be a third at said lab.  _ Oh boy, how fun, _ Astor thought sarcastically.


	15. Chapter 14: Purah's Lab Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astor scares people on accident and he has a nightmare that isn't a memory, before carrying the blue flame with his favorite weapon.

Astor, Midna, Sefaro, and Sefaro’s friend who Astor doesn’t know the name of all make their way up the hill.

“Are we there yet?”

“No, only halfway there.”

“Why?”

“Because this hill is bigger than however far we’ve walked.”

“You’re not even walking though”

“That’s because I came prepared.”

“Can we ride the horsey too?”

“Sorry kid, I only have one saddle.”

The conversation was that, and too many similar iterations of that, up until they reach the top. The two boys run ahead then, spooking Midna until Astor calms her. They both stand at the door and yell at it as Astor dismounts and walks over.

“Hello?!! Miss Sheikah tribe girl?! We wanna play!”

“Hey, boys, that’s not being decent. Remember what I said?”

Sefaro looks at Astor. “You’re not my dad.”

“No, but you followed me up here, and your dad isn’t here, so you’ll have to pretend I’m your dad until you go back to him.”

Sefaro’s eyes widened; he doesn’t want this guy to be his dad.

“Azu, let’s go home!” Sefaro grabs his friend’s hand and they run back down the hill, and Astor raises his eyebrows as he watches. He shrugs.  _ At least that worked. _ He turns back to the door and knocks on it.

“The children won’t bother you, I think I scared them off.”

He lowers his hand and hears voices inside, one being that of a little girl trying and failing to whisper. “I dunno Symin, that sounds worse than the children. Don’t open the door.”

Astor debates whether or not he should say he can hear them, before deciding to wait. After a few moments he knocks again.

“I’m here to speak with Purah, it’s Astor.”

He hears laughing as someone opens the door.

“Good one Robbie, you almost got m-” The small girl opening the door stops as she looks up at someone way too familiar. Despite a century passing, she recognized the man in practically an instant, especially in his purple hood. She gasps suddenly, sounding terrified, and closes the door. Astor doesn’t realize he looked like he was glaring due to his chronic case of resting bitch face disease. He raises his eyebrows, surprised, as the door closes and he hears the child now speaking in a more hushed yet panicky tone. “Sweet Hylia, that wasn’t Robbie, oh my god. Oh my god Symin, he’s alive and he killed Impa. She sent the rupees cuz she lost our bet on if he lived or not and then he killed her oh my god.”

“I can hear you-”

He hears the child shriek and clenches his teeth, cringing.  _ Oops. _

“No, I didn’t kill Impa, I promise.”

“And how can I trust you, prophet boy?!”

“What- okay, kid? I don’t know how I can prove that I didn’t kill Impa, and I don’t know where Purah is either, but I need to talk to her and I also didn’t kill her. I don’t plan on killing anyone but Ganon, okay?”

Astor waits for a bit, hearing them faintly whispering. They really should insulate this door or something.

“Okay!” He looks up at the muffled sound of the child speaking again.

“I need you, prophet boy, to do a chore for me before you can talk to Purah! I mean, a chore for Purah! Look to your left!”

He does so, noting the sign and the bulbous mass of Sheikah tech themed... rock? “Now what?”

“See how the ancient furnace has no blue flame? There’s a source of blue flame down in Hateno, by the fields. You need to bring the blue flame up here and light the furnace.”

“Is that what all of the… er, turrets, are for? All over the town?”

“Yes! Those will hold the blue flame and protect it if it starts raining. Bring us the flame, prophet boy, and we’ll let you in!”

Astor thought of a question.

“...Does your door even have a lock?”

“I- what- um, yes?! Totally?! Now go!”

“Alright, I’ll do that, then.” That door almost totally  _ doesn’t _ have a lock, but breaking and entering isn’t something Astor wants to do.  _ Would I break in if I were the same as before?  _ He cringes a bit at the thought.  _ Yikes, I hope not. _

Riding Midna back down the hill, unknowingly observed by Purah, he takes his horse to the stables by the inn and approaches the guy leaning against the small structure.

“Hey.” The guy glares at him, Astor doesn’t know if it’s intentional but he gets the feeling this guy wouldn’t care. “What?”

“Can I put my horse here, or do these need to be reserved or something?”

“Go right ahead, if it’s empty it’s open.”

“Thanks.” Astor puts Midna in the stable farther from the guy and pets her snout. “I’ll be back, okay?” The horse makes a noise at him as though to acknowledge that, but Astor doesn’t know what horse noises mean so he hopes she’ll be fine. He hikes back up the hill, looking toward the fields for something blue and glowing, until he lays eyes on it as he passes the windmill. He smiles, but it seems like as soon as he does, clouds blow in and he feels a raindrop on the top of his head.  _ Ah. Shit, okay I guess. _

He checks the time on his slate to find it’s now 6:45 pm. He sighs disappointedly as the rain picks up, and after marking the blue flame on his map he runs back down the hill. The guy from earlier watches him as he runs, unintentionally toward him, and Astor sees that the guy looks increasingly scared until he slows down and goes to pet Midna.

“Stay dry, okay? Such a pretty girl.” He smiles as she pushes her nose into his hand, and he hears the guy exhale like he’s exasperated.

“Man, you scared me! Looked like a ghost for a bit!”

“Yeah, sorry,” Astor looks at him, still petting Midna, “I can’t seem to help scaring people. I already scared like two kids.”

“Oof….”

Astor goes up and enters the inn, looking around at everything before approaching the lady at the counter. “Hi, can I book a room?”

“Sure thing, how many nights?”

“Just one, I think.”

“That’ll be twenty rupees, thirty if you want the dinner.”

“Oh? What’s for dinner?”

“Today’ll be chicken, mushroom and rice stew. Served with milk or water.”

Astor thinks for a moment. “Sounds good, I’ll have it!” He hands her his purple rupee, which she exchanges with another red one, and he puts it back in his pouch.

“Dinner will be ready at 7:30, alright? And your room’s number 4.”

“Very well, thank you!” He smiles a bit, and hopes her slight change of expression isn’t out of fear or something. “I think I’ll head back out until then.”

“Alright.”

They wave at each other, and he heads down to the store he saw the “Tailor” sign at, hoping they’d have underwear. A rain coat would be nice too, but that sounded like it would be expensive.

He thankfully acquires several pairs for just 20 rupees, and returns back to the inn as dinner is being prepared, setting his bag on the bed in Room 4. He removes his hood, sits on the bed and checks the Sheikah Slate for the time; 7:16 pm, and rain is forecasted for the next few hours overnight. He sighs and only hopes it will be gone in the morning, but then decides he should probably bring the rest of his stuff inside.

He stands up and goes back out to retrieve his bag from Midna, undoing the straps holding it onto the saddle. As safe as this town seems, anyone could still try to take his stuff, and that would be rather inconvenient. As much as he needs better weapons, it won’t help to lose what he has now.

He takes his bag to his room and pushes it under the bed, checking the time once more. Dinner will be ready soon, and it’ll be nice to have something warm and at least hopefully tasty.

After enjoying the meal, he gets settled for bed at about 8, washing himself off in the smallish bathroom attached to his room and changing his outfit to just a thin shirt and underwear before getting into bed. He doesn’t have much time to savor how comfortable it is before he closes his eyes and falls asleep.

As usual, he finds himself in a different place, but while dressed in the robes- alas, they’re the same purple- he finds himself in the same state of mind he has currently. Looking around, this place he’s in isn’t familiar at all- it’s instead a large, dome-shaped structure, walls covered in red glowing shapes- constellations, he realizes- and trimmed along the floor with glowing red forming… something, though he doesn’t recognize anything.

_ “Astor….” _

The voice echoes through the dome, sounding like a raspy whisper while the echoes make it feel loud. He covers his ears, bending over a bit when it gets overwhelming, but it doesn’t help.

_ “Why do you cower? Have you truly forgotten?” _

He looks up, feeling a presence before him, but then seeing nothing in the dome. “I, w-well-”

_ “You have.” _

“... Yes….”

_ “And you have turned against me, now?” _

_ Is this Calamity Ganon?  _ Astor looks around for the anomalous being as he feels the presence begin to surround him.

_ “Even if you won’t ask me directly, yes. I am. I am the one who you devoted your life to, who’s influence still touches you; at least, that appears to be a  _ fear _ of yours now.” _

Astor tries not to shudder, but fails. The presence of Calamity Ganon hangs heavy in the atmosphere, and flecks of black and hot glowing pink begin to rise from the floor’s center, prompting Astor to back away.

_ “You have no need to fear me, my seer…” _

Astor raises an eyebrow, watching as the malice begins to coagulate into a form. It resembles a humanoid in shape alone, though as it forms further it’s made clear that it’s quite a bit taller than him, and that it’s emaciated. The first half of the phrase echoes until the head forms, eyes opening to reveal that they’re all black aside from the glowing yellow irises, and the malice parting where a mouth would be on any humanoid to reveal disturbingly misshapen teeth. Astor can’t help but cower on purpose as Calamity Ganon finishes his sentence with his new mouth.

_ “... As long as you return to my side.” _

Astor, after a few long moments, looks up at the malicious beast and tries to hide his fear. Though Ganon can sense it, he manages to mask any fear he can behind a more neutral expression, and straightens himself before he responds.

“I… I can’t do that.”

_ “Now, my dear seer, what could possibly be holding you back from the life you lived a mere century ago?” _

Astor swallows, trying to remain calm. Ganon feels his fear wavering, smiling slightly at the indication that it might go up.

“I have a new duty to ful- to fulfill, Ganon… I’ve no time nor will, to return to such a…  _ wretched _ existence….”

_ “You were powerful when you devoted yourself to me. Has a mere century truly changed you so much?” _

“I… I think it was more the return from the brink of death, which changed me. I cannot align myself with you again, not against those who s-saved me….”

Astor, while he had managed to stand tall and still, flinches instinctively when the malice creature begins to approach him. He soon was looking up at the distorted face of the monster, as it smiled, well, maliciously in two senses.

_ “Pitiful, aren’t you? And I granted you a chance for redemption… How sad, isn’t it?” _

_ What? What is ‘it’? _

_ “That I won’t have my seer, and Hyrule will fall. Despite the pitiful efforts of your now precious princess, and despite that no hero courageous enough to wield your precious blade will ever rise again!” _

Before Astor could process his words, the creature pulled one of its arms back before quickly jabbing several claws into his stomach.

Astor wakes with a start, sitting up and clutching his torso, breathing quickly and heavily. The phantom pain fades after a few moments as his breathing slows, and after glancing around at his surroundings he grabs the Sheikah Slate off the nightstand to check the time.

3:54 am. Too early, but now he’s too awake to sleep again thanks to the adrenaline.  _ Thanks, asshole, really makes me regret not going back to you. _ He furrows his brow in annoyance, then shudders a bit at recalling the nightmare. That clearly wasn’t a true memory… right?

He goes into the bathroom and activates the magic lantern on the side of the wall- it has a small glowing switch on the side, thankfully- and makes eye contact with his disheveled reflection. The dark circles under his eyes seemed more prominent and the string he’d tied his hair up with was now mostly loose and hanging lower to the side. He blows some hair out of his eyes in annoyance as he lifts his shirt to check for scars- and is surprised to see some, even though they don’t match Nightmare-Ganon’s attack. They only faintly stand out from his skin, but seeing them from farther away in a mirror makes them look almost obvious. He runs his fingers along the apparent slash marks, looking down at them and finding that the larger two seem to have been made by different weapons, based on the shapes of the edges or how they healed.

Despite the Shrine of Resurrection’s near-perfect job of healing his wounds, he still could make out the shape of somewhat jagged edges along one, and the more pock-marked texture of the other scar. The smaller slashes seemed to be from a normal blade, though the two large ones…  _ what could have caused them?  _ Astor turns a bit, back and forth to look at them a bit more and wonder, until he decides to check if the rain is finished falling. Leaving the bathroom, he switches the light back off and looks out the room’s window to hear crickets and see the moon faintly illuminating what he could see of the outside.  _ Good… might as well take care of this now, then. _

He gets dressed, and takes his bag back out to Midna, surprised to find that weird guy not at the mini stable. He didn’t think that guy was going to leave. After securing his bag back to the saddle, he takes his torch out and makes his way to the ancient furnace. Reaching it with minor struggling, just having to hop over a creek, he’s enamored by the blue flame.

It’s a lot prettier up close, and it glowed with such a soft light it looked like it could be touched- luckily he knew not to try and touch actual fire, though, so after a bit of watching the flame dance in the gentle breeze he sticks the tip of the torch into it. He then turns back to the torch nearest to the furnace, soon walking over and lighting it. He goes along the path back down into the village, as hopping over the creek left his shoes and lower pant legs wet, and he lights each torch he sees.

By the time he reaches the tree where he’d found the children yesterday, the sky is lighting up; it’s getting close to dawn. He hikes up the hill, remembering there being just one torch left, and when he lights it the sky is brightening even more- looking out to the ocean he can see the orange-gold light of the sunrise reaching out over the water already. He smiles a bit to himself, enjoying the view, and decides to go faster for the last stretch of his path to see it better before it’s too bright.

He starts walking faster up the hill, but soon is running to the top, and he only stops for a moment to light the ancient furnace before walking to the edge of the hill. He carries his torch, still lit with the blue flame, as he walks at a leisurely pace to a spot next to what looks like a small plot for some sort of crop. While he looks over the vast ocean, the sun begins to rise behind the hill, and he has to shield his eyes from it.

He admires the view for a bit longer, until the sunrise begins to day, before he decides to extinguish the torch and return to the lab’s entrance. The furnace is still lit.  _ Good, hopefully I’ll be able to talk to Purah- _ and remembering the encounter with the child yesterday along with his nightmare, he begrudgingly pulls his hood back. He listens at the door for any signs of activity, and since it’s quiet he decides to sit down next to the door.  _ I’ll just wait, maybe close my eyes until I hear something.... _

When he wakes up again from his thankfully dreamless nap, the sun is much higher, but at least he can hear people inside- the voices of the child and whoever Symin is.

“Oh, isn’t it lovely?! I can’t believe he actually did it! Well, unless someone else did, but nobody from the village ever volunteered.”

The first exclamation he understood may have been what woke him, but he isn’t sure, and he groggily rubs his eyes. The early awakening, and thus lack of sleep, finally caught up with him. 

“Where do you think he went, anyway? It’s like he lit the thing and left all before we got up! Why would he do  _ that, _ though?”

“I don’t know, Director.”

_ Did I miss something? Or is the child in charge? Ugh, hope she’s at least better behaved than those little shits from yesterday. _ He stands up and stretches, before knocking on the door.

“Oh! He must’ve figured out how to use the teleporters too… What good timing. Come in, if you’re Astor! If not, get off my property!”

Astor opens the door, seeing the little girl quickly closing a notebook, and an adult man-  _ Symin? _ \- standing at a bookshelf.  _ Mayyyybe I missed something? _


End file.
